Two Irish Plays Worth Seeing

 Last weekend we enjoyed Brian Friel's terrific play, Translations, at the Irish Repertory Theatre in New York. For me, it was a special treat, in that I had just completed a four-play course led by Chris Griffin, who taught Irish lit at George Washington Univ., and presented by our independent bookstore, Politics & Prose, in which this Friel play was the final one we read and discussed. Somehow I'd never seen one of his plays and now I know what I've missed. The Irish Repertory Theatre will be doing two more, including his first big success on Broadway, Philadelphia, Here I Come!, this spring as part of their Friel Project.

The play is set in 1833 in Donegal, which is in some parts further north in Ireland than Northern Ireland. The Brits--their army--are documenting and Anglicizing place-names; most of the locals have nothing to do with another exercise of the colonial power but one man who's made a success in Dublin comes back to serve as their translator and interpreter. As he becomes friendlier with the young British officer who is the cartographer, he fails to see that this will not end well.

It's a well-crafted play that allows the audience (and readers) to consider the implications of what each of the characters is conveying. The performances are excellent and their accents impeccable. Friel grew up in Derry, Northern Ireland, and was present on Bloody Sunday there during "the Troubles".

Today we saw Conor McPherson's The Seafarer at Round House in Bethesda. This drama features five men--no women--all of whom are hanging on in a house where the only consistent activity is drinking. The first act was tedious and at least one friend had told us that she departed at the intermission. I'm glad we resisted doing that because the second act turned everything around and presented a clever dramatic conflict, with all five roles playing important parts.

It was amazing to see how the play came to life. You immediately begin to appreciate how each man fits into the drama. They all perform well and unlike the first act, you don't find yourself wondering when the act will end. McPherson also throws in some nice curveballs to heighten the impact. It was definitely worth coming back after the interval.

The Promised End at Source Theater

No, I'm not reporting the demise of the Source Theater on 14th Street. This was an IN Series production presented there which we took in last Saturday night. You might say that it was an interesting idea to combine Shakespeare's King Lear with Verdi's Requiem. As it turned out, the Requiem fared better, in my view, than Lear. 

The stage was a group of chairs and benches, with vertical rods running down the middle across the stage. There were eight singers--four men and four women--all with excellent voices covering the full range. There's also a narrator who also plays the parts of both Verdi and Lear at various times, mostly from a simple reading stand more than a lectern.

The singing is superb. The lower men's voices, bass and baritone in particular, added beauty to the performance of the Requiem that the eight singers carry on throughout the performance. The women singers were equally excellent. The narrator, played by Nanna Ingvarsson, projected a commanding figure but had the most difficult role because her task included telling something about the lives of both Verdi and Shakespeare, as well as tying the music to the words of the play, King Lear.

Ingvarsson was often overwhelmed by the sound of eight opera singers going all out. She was able to portray in some fashion the great dramatic points in Lear, which is often described as the peak of Shakespeare's output. Much of her presentation, however, was lost amid the huge sound of the Requiem singers and accompaniment. The performance early on emphasized Verdi's life and career, including singing from offstage of his famous chorus of the Hebrew slaves in Babylon, Va Pensiero, from Nabucco, which became the Italian national anthem.

To me, this was an example of "seemed like a good idea at the time" although I found the fine singing of the Requiem was enthralling. I've seen Lear performed as its own play and will attest to its greatness, but it is not in any way nor should it be a light three hours at the theater. This production ran for about 80 minutes and there was effusive applause at the end, for the singers, who were wonderful, and for the narrator, perhaps because of the superhuman task she was set and attempted bravely to accomplish.