Reviews 2005
Reviews 2005
✭✭✭✭✭
by Tom Murphy, directed by Jason Byrne
Company Theatre, Berkeley Street Theatre Upstairs, Toronto
January 15-February 6, 2005
"A Thrilling Debut"
Few regular theatre-goers in Canada will have heard of Irish playwright Tom Murphy or his 1961 play “A Whistle in the Dark”. A new theatre company in Toronto called the Company Theatre is about to change that. It has chosen Murphy’s play as its inaugural production. It reveals the work as a powerful, painfully relevant tragedy. Under Irishman Jason Bynre’s meticulous direction the eight-member ensemble give truly outstanding performances making this the most exciting debut of a new theatre company in Toronto since Soulpepper.
When the 24-year-old Murphy submitted his play to the Abbey Theatre in Dublin, the theatre rejected it. So it had its premiere in England, though the Abbey has subsequently presented it. There’s no surprise why it was initially rejected. The play is one of the most unforgiving dissections of the Irish character that exists, untempered by sentimentality and divorced from the mythical contexts where Murphy’s contemporary Brian Friel often locates his Irish portraits.
The action is set in the living-room of Michael Carney in Coventry, England. Michael, the best-educated of his family, has emigrated to England in search of better work and has married an English wife, Betty. Unfortunately, three of Michael’s brothers--Harry, Iggy and Hugo--have followed him to Coventry, invading Michael’s home and setting up the same illegal businesses they plied back in County Mayo. Now the family patriarch DaDa is about to arrive with Des, the youngest of the five Carney sons, in tow. Betty’s life, already made miserable by the violence and disdain of the Carney brothers, is about to become intolerable. As for Michael, he is now surrounded by the whole system of familial hierarchy and petty-mindedness he sought to escape. Worse than this, what the three Carney brothers look forward to most in a bloody confrontation with another set of Irish immigrant brothers, the Mulryans. The pacifist Michael wants to save Des from involvement with his brothers’ pointless vendetta. At the same time Betty wants Michael to fight his brothers to clear them out of their house.
Though it deals with an Irish family in England, Murphy’s play has only gained in relevance over time. It anatomizes not just the Irish mentality but the tribal mentality in general. Michael seeks to be part of the new country he lives in. His English wife is testimony to that. Michael’s brothers, however, refer to Betty as a “stranger” even in her own house. Though facing prejudice from the Englishmen of the Coventry, the Carneys focus their anger on another Irish family. When Michael’s DaDa arrives Michael’s house and his brothers come under DaDa’s authority, not Michael’s, in effect establishing a miniature Ireland in exile. Not as individuals but only as a group can this self-conscious minority “whistle in the dark”, that is, attempt to keep up their courage.
One central irony is that while the Carney brothers have no status in the outside world, in Michael’s house they are all to quick to take offense at the slightest inflection or word choice that they think impugns their manliness or courage. The other irony is that DaDa’s lessons to his sons to heed his patriarchal authority but to disregard all other authority, carries the seeds of its own destruction. Why pay heed to any authority, especially when DaDa is gradually sliding into dementia?
The multiple lines of tension between characters that Byrne and the cast conjure up is agonizingly palpable. John Thompson’s set may be very plain, but the cast fill it with a volatile energy ready to explode at any moment. Byrne achieves this through minutely detailed direction that gives this tinderbox of a household its own fearful reality just inches away from the audience.
The cast give naturalistic performances of the very highest order. Jonathan Goad, who has given many fine performances at Stratford, outdoes all of them in creating Michael’s impotent despair. A sense of hopeless undermines almost every action he takes no matter how well-meaning. His ideal of pacifism is noble but how can it survive in a midst of a pack of wolves? As Betty, Sarah Dodd powerfully portrays, even in silence, a woman bursting with rage and humiliation. The calmness of her speech only communicates more strongly the intensity of her emotions.
The most frightening of the Carney brothers is Harry, played by Company Theatre co-Artistic Director Allan Hawco. Hawco, who has so often played romantic leads, clearly relishes the chance to play this dangerous sociopath. As Harry, Hawco positively glows with menace, always ready to dominate others, always ready to take offense when a threat of violence will benefit him. The other Carney brothers seems like mere ruffians compared to this character so imbued with malice.
Philip Riccio, the other Company Theatre co-Artistic Director, plays Des. Within the two and a half hours of the play we see him decline from a quiet innocent, torn between the claims of Michael and Harry, to boastful fool drunk first on his family’s power and then on his own. Oliver Becker as Iggy and Aaron Poole as Hugo have smaller roles, serving primarily as foils for both Harry and Michael. David Jansen gives a remarkable performance as Harry’s Irish friend Mush, who hangs around with the Carneys without realizing they think him a fool. In many ways he is a symbol of the allure of tribe and gangs. On his own he is a cipher. With the Carneys he feels he is someone.
Without upsetting the balance of the ensemble, Joseph Ziegler’s performance as DaDa is extraordinary, one of the finest performances in his long career. This DaDa is a kind of domestic King Lear. Through his present decay we can perceive the ruthlessness with which this petty tyrant must have run his family. When we hear stories of how he used to command brother to fight brother we can believe it. Yet, for all the bravado he encourages in his sons, he himself is coward. Much of the play’s comedy that thankfully leavens the tension at key moments comes from our awareness, and indeed the growing awareness of the brothers, that this man to whom they must pay deference is in reality a buffoon lost in the sentimental past, hardly able to make sense anymore when he speaks.
One effect of seeing nearly two hundred productions a year as I do is that truly inspired productions leap out from all the rest. This is one of them. A great play, incisive direction, a flawless, impassioned cast with many giving their best-ever performances--this is the kind of thrill theatre-lovers live for. Don’t miss it.
©Christopher Hoile
Note: This review is a Stage Door exclusive.
Photo: Allan Hawco, Aaron Poole and Joseph Ziegler.
2005-01-18
A Whistle in the Dark