John Millington Synge’s brilliant satire “The Playboy of the Western World” is a mordant look at the power of public opinion. It is also extremely funny, wry, philosophical, and full of the pathos and humor that runs like a golden river through the Hibernian heart. Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey’s rendition is full of spark and sparkle, chemistry and emotion, and the zingers are often caught belatedly due to the different cadences of the Irish country dialect.
The action takes place in the then-present of 1907 in County Mayo. This is an Edwardian time when rich are rich and the poor are squalidly so. The King’s friends drink wine, while the Irish in the country drink “poteen,” their version of white lightning. The caricature village folk fall somewhere between Christian and Pagan in their love of folly, fighting, and frenzy and manage to whip themselves into all three in the few days in which they make their acquaintance with Christy Mahon (Michael A. Newcomer). It’s a hard life and a long road between the meetings of Christy and Margaret Flaherty (Izzie Steele) known to all and sundry as “Pegeen Mike.” Christy’s transformation is, in part, to become the man that Pegeen would want. Quite honestly, the loser-to-lover blooming makes Pegeen’s erstwhile wooer Shawn Keogh (James Russell) look like a hothouse blossom, rather than the vigorous wildflower that Christy reveals within.
Michael James Flaherty (Matt Sullivan) has raised himself an independent young woman in his daughter Pegeen and this may later prove to be his peril. Just as Old Mahon (Edmond Genest) may have raised himself a very different young man than the picture he paints of his runaway son. Emma O’Donnell’s Widow Quin, however, seems to have the measure, and the spinning and the cutting skills necessary, to weave a Fate for all of those benighted souls who cross her path. The picture painted of the village locals is not overly flattering, yet it is part of the wave of realism that would come to sweep Irish, English, and American literature. This realism took the romanticized ideal of life in villages being simpler and more kind and turned it on its ear. The vox populi spoke out against the portrayal of this end of innocence by rioting first in 1907 in Dublin, when the work played the Abbey Theater, and again when the play crossed the water and played in the United States in 1911. People in that time were not accustomed to attacks on their sacred cows—imagine what a ruckus “Heathers” would have caused in those times—even though the works spring from that source that embraced realism and rejected the idea of the noble savage or the noble peasant, whose lives were thought to be less complicated.
This production, under the expert direction of Paul Mullins, really shines in the scenes where passion rules. There is a beautiful scene in Act Two in which Pegeen and Christy realize they are in love. It is tender and you can practically see stars and hearts between Steele and Newcomer. There is delicious contrast, as well, between Christy being carried on the shoulders of the populace, after he wins the donkey race, and their bitter condemnation, when they believe he’s killed his father—yet another time. Genest, as “Zombie Dad,” has several tricks up his sleeve, but the main one seems to be a cast iron cranium. The father/son confrontations are emotionally rending in their pain, even while the crowd-energy of the mob scenes swings the pendulum into a very maelstrom of umbrage. Whether rightful or misplaced, you’ll need to decide for yourself.
Brittany Vasta’s tavern has the suggestions of a sketch–the roof is only partially thatched, so that Michael Giannitti’s lighting designs may be better appreciated. Steven L. Beckel’s sound is evocative and Candida Nichols hits the right notes with costume design, reminding some that people didn’t always need walk-in closets. There was your weekday set of clothes, and your Sunday clothes. The one who has done perhaps the greatest work is dialect consultant Stephen Gabis. It is both the (now) archaic speech, as well as the cadences of that speech, that color our perceptions of the language and the people who utter it. All in all, it is well and truly done. You’ll walk out of the theatre amused, bruised, and brooding, as you digest what you’ve just seen. Brilliant and thought provoking, what is real and how much of each of us is a façade we erect to fool ourselves as much as others?
The show just runs through June 23, so call the Box Office at 973/408.5600 or get your tickets at
www.ShakespeareNJ.org. Beat the rush and the riot, this experience makes a great gift for Dads and Grads!