Charming 'Dublin' less funny in U.S.
Inis Nua Theatre Company's American premiere of Dublin by Lamplight by Michael West, is an odd, charming show, showcasing an impressive cast under Tom Reing's highly stylized commedia dell'arte direction. All the actors play multiple roles and the handsome church space - set with only one chair - is used imaginatively. But why it's performed in exaggerated whiteface makeup is a mystery, unless it's just to make this old-timey melodrama seem unusual.
Inis Nua Theatre Company's American premiere of
Dublin by Lamplight
by Michael West, is an odd, charming show, showcasing an impressive cast under Tom Reing's highly stylized commedia dell'arte direction. All the actors play multiple roles and the handsome church space - set with only one chair - is used imaginatively. But why it's performed in exaggerated whiteface makeup is a mystery, unless it's just to make this old-timey melodrama seem unusual.
How much you'll enjoy it probably depends on how much you know about Irish political history, Irish literature and mythology, and the founding of the Abbey Theatre. I can imagine that a Dublin audience, watching this play in the Abbey, familiar with its in-jokes and inclined to self-mockery, would find Dublin by Lamplight hilarious. For us, a little electricity wouldn't go amiss.
That Dublin is lit by lamplight refers to the play's setting in 1904, which in turn refers to the year in which James Joyce's Ulysses takes place (There is a Stephen Daedalus moment: "Hellenise this island.") It was also the year William Butler Yeats and Lady Gregory - both Irish patriots - opened the now-legendary Abbey to give Ireland a national theater. This was built on the earlier Dramatic Society run by Frank and Willy Fay - who are both characters in Dublin by Lamplight and played with gusto by Jared Michael Delaney and Charlie DelMarcelle.
The plot involves Frank's plan to explode a suitcase bomb at the parade celebrating the King of England's visit to Ireland; complicating this "Day of Destiny" is the opening of their show, The Wooing of Emer, based on one of the myths of the great warrior Cuchulainn. And so we see a play within a play (which is funny but goes on much too long) while the theatrical company's players enact their own drama accompanied by nifty piano playing by John Lionarons.
As with any play about a theater company, there is the required grand dame (Megan Bellwoar) and the puffed-up star (Mike Dees). The young seamstress (Sarah Van Auken) longs to be on the stage and loves Frank, her Cuchulainn, while the shy carpenter (Kevin Meehan) loves her unrequitedly. And as with any play about early-20th-century Ireland, it's about politics.
The actors defend their play ("It's just a play"); the police counter with, "Plays contain coded messages." Is there a message here for us? With so much rib-nudging and winking, I guess there must be, but I couldn't decode it.
Dublin by Lamplight
Presented by Inis Nua Theatre Company at Broad Street Ministries, 315 S. Broad St. Through May 14. Tickets $20-$25. Information: www.inisnuatheatre.org.
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