Shining City
Shining City
By Conor McPherson
Directed by Fran Hilgenberg
Starring Daryl Wells, Dave Thome
Theater Downtown, Orlando FL</strong>
If you’re looking for immortality, your choices boil down to conquering Asia Minor, having a kid, or haunting a person or place you were close to. John (Thome) lost his wife in an enigmatic taxi accident and now she appears behind the closet door and drives him nuts. He’s sought out counselor and ex-priest Ian (Wells) whose own life is so complicated he HAS to have some good advice. As Ian drags John out of the woods he falls more deeply into his own private hell. He impreganted long suffering Neasa (Lockhard) but after a few months of heterosexual joy, he finds himself strolling down a different primrose path. While John eventually finds peace, his ghost doesn’t and Ian is left with an out of work ghost in need of a person to hang around.
Like most theatre, it’s the internal state of mind that fascinate, not the odd or inexplicable incidents. McPherson’s slice of Irish life is long on fractured dialog and only mildly creepy. Much of Ian’s dialog consists of unfinished sentences tbegging for a decent direct object. Holding the show together were John and Neasa. Sara Lockhard offers a heart rending plea for her husband and lover to return and save her from the evil eye of her in-laws. Thome’s John and his self confession of failed affairs to a failed preist shows a man who’s wrestled with the devil and just barley escaped with a scorched soul. Ian was harder to get a grip on, his blocking showed his back to the audience just as his words showed his back to Neasa. For a few lighter moments we had Patages’ puckish cruiser Laurence. I found him sympathetic, but quite American sounding.
While “Shining City” is offered as a ghost story, the ghosts are mostly the Casperish demons we all possess as they posses us. Churches make a big deal about repenting and sinning no more, but with out our sins what would we be? Nothing but Putti floating above a distant planet, and bereft of anything juicy to discuss at the dinner table.
For more information, please visit http://www.theatredowntown.net
