Interludes

VIEWPOINTS – Two explosive Off-Broadway imports depict troubles from across the pond

• By drediman
• August 26, 2016
• No Comments

As summer draws to a close, New York theatergoers are being given the rare opportunity to understand and sympathize with issues taking place across the pond in the United Kingdom via two visiting theater troupes that hail from lands which they so passionately depict – one from Ireland, the other from Wales.

At its beautifully renovated home in Chelsea, the Irish Repertory Theatre is co-producing, along with the red hot Public Theatre, the Abbey Theatre’s production of Quietly (RECOMMENDED). Long regarded as one of the leading theater companies in Ireland, the Dublin-based Abbey has had a rich and storied history. Quietly, written by Owen McCafferty, mostly lives up to that heritage. The play concerns two middle-age Irishmen who meet at a nondescript Belfast bar to settle up a violent, politically-charged incident (Unionism vs. Republicanism; even immigration problems are touched upon) that took place when they were teenagers. Despite some heavy-handed stretches in the writing – I had a hard time buying into the overly descriptive content of some of the two characters’ monologues given the production’s obvious naturalism (directed by Jimmy Fay), the production is nonetheless powerful due to a trio of nuanced, muscular performances. Patrick O’Kane, Robert Zawadzki, and Declan Conlon each imbue their characters with masculine matter-of-factness and subtle, underlying unmoored sadness that feel completely authentic.

Also this summer, the Flea is playing host to The Good Earth (RECOMMENDED), a piece of devised theater created by the Wales-based theater company Motherlode. Not to be confused with Pearl S. Buck’s 1931 Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, Motherlode’s production tells the story of a village that’s in the midst of being uprooted and relocated without sufficient justification, to the dismay and protest of a small band of residents (the play is based on the true story of the Welsh village of Troedrhiwgwair). The movement-based storytelling is seamless and mostly affecting, even if some of the dialogue isn’t the most skillfully crafted. Nonetheless, the performances – kudos to Rachael Boulton (the production’s director and Motherlode’s founder), Anni Dafydd, Kate Elis, Gwenllian Higginson, and Mike Humphreys – are fiercely committed and their excellent work ultimately overshadows any deficiencies in the writing, cumulatively resulting in a piece that’s quite moving.

QUIETLY
Off-Broadway, Play
The Abbey Theatre (in association with The Public Theater) at Irish Repertory Theater
1 hour, 15 minutes (without an intermission)
Through September 25

THE GOOD EARTH
Off-Broadway, Play
Motherlode at The Flea
1 hour, 20 minutes (without an intermission)
Through September 3