Interludes

VIEWPOINTS – Two Irish playwrights remind us why they are masters: Conor McPherson’s DUBLIN CAROL & Brian Friel’s MOLLY SWEENEY

• By drediman
• November 5, 2019
• No Comments

Over the past month or so, New Yorkers have been privy to two very fine Off-Broadway revivals of semi-forgotten plays from the 1990s by two well regarded Irish playwrights, Conor McPherson and the late, great Brian Friel. All over again, I was reminded of why these two are indisputable masters of their craft.

Jeffrey Bean and Sarah Street in Irish Rep’s revival of “Dublin Carol” by Conor McPherson. Photo by Carol Rosegg.

First at the Irish Rep was Mr. McPherson’s 1999 play Dublin Carol (HIGHLY RECOMMENDED). I can’t believe it’s been two decades since I saw the original production at London’s Royal Court, which starred Brian Cox. Although I have fond memories of that experience, Irish Rep’s revival, directed with disarming clarity by Ciarán O’Reilly’s, is exceptional and every bit as good. The one-act play is a profound inversion of both Dickens’ A Christmas Carol, as well as the playwright’s M.O. Set in Dublin on Christmas Eve, it tells the story of a funeral home employee, a former reckless alcoholic who has retreated from the world due to deep shame and guilt. Over the course of the play, he grapples with his turbulent, despicable past and sedate, hypocritical present to claim a somewhat healthier future. Mr. McPherson is notable for beguilingly injecting a sense of the supernatural into the lives of his bruised, largely working class characters. Here, he interestingly does just the opposite – he removes any glimmer of a higher power, and therefore hope, from this man’s anguished struggle. And unlike in Dickens’ version, he receives no overnight guidance from ghostly apparitions (although he is frequented by a young, new member of the funeral home staff, as well as his estranged daughter). In portraying the lonely and harrowing fight for the life of the play’s deeply flawed anti-hero, actor Jeffrey Bean gives a tour de force performance of startling intensity and range. It’s a performance that shouldn’t be missed.

Paul O’Brien, Pamela Sabaugh, and Tommy Schrider in Keen Company’s revival of “Molly Sweeney” by Brian Friel at Theatre Row. Photo by Carol Rosegg.

Further uptown at Theatre Row, I also caught Keen Company’s revival of Mr. Friel’s exquisitely written 1994 play Molly Sweeney (RECOMMENDED), about the circumstances around the partial restoration of a blind Irish woman’s (the titular Molly Sweeney) eyesight and her quick, subsequent demise into madness. Since its premiere, the play has drawn comparisons to one of Mr. Friel’s great successes, his 1979 play Faith Healer. Both works tell their stories through three interweaving monologues. In the case of Molly Sweeney, the play’s series of events are told from the perspectives of Molly, her depressed ophthalmologist, and her restless husband. This particular “Rashomon”-esque approach to theatrical storytelling has its unique merits, although some theatergoers may find it a tad too static. For me, it’s a powerful reminder, both textually and visually, that our journey through life is essentially a solitary one. As for Keen Company’s production, it’s a sturdy piece of staging, thanks to Jonathan Silverstein’s no-nonsense direction. As for the trio of actors – Pamela Sabaugh, Paul O’Brien, and Tommy Schrider – they’re appropriately understated and equally excellent. They understand that this is the kind of play that can only succeed by quietly seducing and drawing audiences into its delicate, painfully human world. They start off unassumingly enough, but when you emerge from the images they’ve conjured two-and-a-half hours later, you may well find your world having been shaken, as I did.

DUBLIN CAROL
Off-Broadway, Play
Irish Repertory Theatre
1 hour, 30 minutes (without an intermission)
Through November 10

MOLLY SWEENEY
Off-Broadway, Play
Keen Company / Theatre Row
2 hours, 30 minutes (with one intermission)
Through November 16