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Troubles Without End
by Michael Bettencourt
Never in My Lifetime reviewed February 4, 2010
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| Nicola Murphy and David Beck |
| Photo Credit:Lelo Lourenzo |
| Shirley Gee's award-winning Never In My Lifetime is set in mid-1970s Northern Ireland, at a time when the violence associated with "The Troubles" had reached a particularly vicious peak. (Think the Provisional IRA, Bloody Sunday, and the Shankill Butchers, all of which happened during this time period.) A little rough around the edges, this debut effort by 3 isles Productions is nevertheless competently done.
At the center of the play is a love affair between Tom (David Beck), a British soldier with a heart, and Tessie (Nicola Murphy), a Belfast girl used to doing what she wants. The socio-political forces conspiring to pull them apart are embodied in Charlie (Danny Yoerges), Tom's soldier-mate and a firm believer in the British mission, and Maire (Catriona Rubenis-Stevens), Tessie's "mate" equally committed to ridding her land of the hated occupiers. Two other unnamed characters -- Tessie's mother (Fiana Toibin) and Charlie's pregnant wife (Tammy McNeil) -- provide a kind of chorus-commentary on the play's action.
Of course, the love affair cannot hold in such a poisoned world. Tessie, faced with being killed by Maire's compatriots for her betrayal in loving a "squaddy," agrees to set up Charlie and Tom for assassination, which is duly carried out. Tessie's slate is wiped clean (though her heart and mind are broken), Tom's life is wiped out, Charlie is physically damaged beyond all repair, Maire gratefully takes on the martyr's mantle, Tessie's mother is ravaged by guilt for not having been more aware, and Charlie's wife will raise their child bitter and alone.
Director Tim Ruddy has had set designer Marianne Lu create a spare staging for this hellish story. Gray-daubed platforms at different levels are distressed with graffiti, slash marks, and blood spatter, and the ground is littered with dirt and pebbles. Jonathan Spencer's lighting design adds to the murk of this world, with plenty of shadows where nasty things can happen.
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| David Beck and Danny Yoerges |
| Photo Credit:Lelo Lourenzo |
| The actors all turn in solid performances, with their accents intact and their emotions well-displayed on their sleeves. Mr. Beck manages to pull off the balancing act of the soldier dismayed by his violent obligations, and Ms. Rubenis-Stevens gets the right mix of punk and patriotism in her portrayal of an insurrectionist.
However, despite all the earnest effort to bring this earnest story to light, Never In My Lifetime never quite sparks to theatrical life. Part of it is the static structure of the script: a good portion of the stage-time is taken up with characters recounting information about themselves and the situation instead of it being developed through dramatic conflict, and the core incident -- the assassination -- is revealed through a voiceover radio announcer in the dark rather than displayed in its gruesomeness.
Part of it has to do with Mr. Ruddy's direction, especially of Tom and Tessie. Their fumbling towards affection for each other involved quite a lot of actual fumbling -- they never seemed quite sure where to put their bodies, when to stay still, when to be animated. At other times, characters simply wandered in place while they spoke, their actions not coordinated to the words.
Part of it had to do with an inattention to production values. While Ms. Lu and Mr. Spencer put together an adequate staging, they could have done much more to dress/distress the stage. (For instance, the upstage area is covered by a stage-wide scrim which was left blank, though it's a perfect canvas for more graffiti and signage.) Ellen Johansing's costume design, at least for the three young women, tended to the same type of ripped-neck sweatshirts falling off one shoulder. In the crucial lead-up to the assassination, when Tessie dons a white dress to attract the men to their doom, Ms. Johansing has Tessie wear a crocheted dress that reveals Tessie's black underwear, an irritating visual mismatch.
The person doing the pre-show speech about cellphones and emergency exits also mentioned that this was their second preview performance, so there is time to tighten and amend in order to find the right combination of pathos and grimness that Gee's script calls for. "The Troubles" may appear to be over for the time being, but the engine that drove The Troubles to their murderous conclusions still drives sectarian warfare around the world, and this play is a good reminder that this "rough world," as Maire calls it, lies just outside our doors.
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Access Theater
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Category: Drama
Written by: Shirley Gee
Directed by: Tim Ruddy
Produced by: 3 Isles
Opened: February 3, 2010
Closed: February 21, 2010
Running Time: 2 hours (with intermission)
Theater: Access Theater
Address: 380 Broadway (4th Floor)
New York, NY 10007
Yahoo! Maps Directions
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Tickets: $18.00
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Written by: Shirley Gee
Directed by: Tim Ruddy
Produced by: 3 isles Productions
Light Designer: Jonathan Spencer
Set Designer: Marianne Lu
Costume Designer: Ellen Johansing
Cast
Nicola Murphy as Tessie
David Beck as Tom
Catriona Rubenis-Stevens as Maire
Danny Yoerges as Charlie
Tammy McNeil as Wife
Fiana Toibin as Mother
Stage Manager: Colin Adams-Toomey
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