Theater company’s reprisal of McGuinness play is superb
The Irish Classical Theatre Company has mounted many a memorable play in its 19 years: brittle British comedies of manners, a moving parade of Irish Renaissance stories, wigged and powdery tales of hypocrisy and comeuppance, forays into Chekhov, Shaw, Beckett, Joyce and Moliere.
But an intense and unforgettable production from the company’s 1994 season in its old Chippewa Street home remains one of its most requested plays to revive: “Someone Who’ll Watch Over Me,” by Irish playwright Frank McGuinness. The “three-hander”—featuring Dan Walker, Vincent O’Neill and Louis Colaiacovo — is indeed back, again potently claustrophobic and harrowing, tragic and comic at once.
Playwright McGuinness wrote “Someone . . .” in the early 1990s, basing the plot on the ordeal of Irish teacher Brian Keenan who was abducted by the Islamic Jihad in Beirut and imprisoned for several years. The story is that of American doctor Adam, Irish journalist Edward and British university lecturer Michael, cell mates in a dark and dingy dungeon in Lebanon, bored, disoriented, angry and afraid. Each has a corner he can call home and a leg shackle keeps them there. There is a Bible and the Quran.
In a series of scenes, we watch their days. Adam, muscular and outwardly calm, is seething inside and ready to crack; Edward constantly needles the others, the seemingly effete Michael his main target.
“Give it a rest, Edward,” Adam advises.
Michael, for his part, gradually bares his checkered family past, an intellectual Brit, a nervous wreck, a “sanctimonious prig,” as he calls himself.
The three hostages invent ways to pass the time: They write screenplays and touching letters “home,” throw a drunken party, re-create tennis at Wimbledon, role play driving their cars, their conversations often taking a nationalistic turn. Adam endlessly exercises.
“Don’t you Americans ever sit still?” Edward taunts.
Centuries-old British-Irish tensions emerge. But it’s Edward’s theory that their insults to each other will help them should interrogation or torture eventually happen. Still, it gets violent.
“I’m going to kill you, Edward,” Adam threatens.
The growing dependence on each other and their ultimate bond and shared humanity see them through. Happy ending?
No. But, inspiring, nevertheless.
“Someone Who’ll Watch Over Me” is one of the company’s acting clinics. Dan Walker is extraordinary in his calm and his crumble, quivering lip and blank stares telling all. A remarkable performance: Vincent O’Neill, reprises his role as the cantankerous Edward with the caustic facade. A marvelously physical role: Louis Colaiacovo, usually around song and dance, is the manic academic Michael who ultimately shows great inner strength and resilience. A change-of-pace role superbly played.
Greg Natale always directs with great patience and sense of pace. The writing by Frank McGuinness is king here and Natale is respectful of that, letting the story speak with its words working their magic.
Theater Review
“Someone Who’ll Watch
Over Me”
★★★★
Drama presented through Nov. 22 by the Irish Classical Theatre Company in the Andrews Theatre
625 Main St.
For information, 853-4282, www.irishclassicaltheatre.com.
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