Productions of “The Cripple of Inishmaan” typically find humor in the story of a crippled orphan, but the Vortex production strikes a tough balance between comedy and tragedy.
The play is rife with Irish wit and small-town humor but depicts human strife as well.
“The Cripple of Inishmaan” chronicles a small 1930s Irish community on the island of Inishmaan. The community is abuzz when a Hollywood film crew arrives and starts making a movie nearby.
No one is more interested than Billy Claven, a crippled orphan who sees this as a chance to escape the boredom of his life in Inishmaan.
Billy is played by Micah McCoy. His character meets various people during the play’s first act, most of whom call him “Cripple Billy.” To the townspeople, it’s a simple fact more than a slight, but Billy feels the sting nonetheless.
First the audience meets Billy’s two “pretend aunts,” who are sisters unrelated to Billy and have been raising him since his parents’ mysterious death at sea.
Augusta Allen-Jones and Ninette S. Mordaunt are fantastic in these roles: they rattle off comical banter with ease and convey genuine feelings of love and affection for Billy.
Bartley, a teen like Billy, has a feisty sister Helen, who is the object of Billy’s unspoken affection. The definite highlight, however, is Johnnypateenmike, a shameless town gossip who lives to share other people’s business. Ray Orley as Johnnypateenmike steals every scene, and when actress Jean Effron enters as his 90-year-old alcoholic mother, the laughs are riotous.
Perhaps in an effort to recreate the rhythm of rural life, Martin McDonagh’s play has a rather slow pace. The story insists on taking its time, and those telling it have to work with that constraint.
Fortunately, one of the Vortex production’s chief virtues is that each character is so fully formed and entertaining that one never tires of watching them. Thanks to their dialect coach Alan Hudson, none of the actors seems at odds with the Irish accents or dialects. They succeed in transporting the audience to this time and place in history.
McDonagh’s play gives life to a tight-knit Irish community, but he has many surprising reversals up his sleeve. McDonagh has particular fondness for the role of gossiping and storytelling in small towns. Much of the play revolves around stories the characters tell each other that are sometimes true and sometimes not. This keeps the audience guessing about plot elements, and the characters telling the stories are as important as the stories themselves.
This is accentuated by Marty Epstein’s canny direction, which never gives away too much too soon.
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McCoy, as the crippled Billy, gives a subtle performance that forms the heart of the piece. As he strives toward his first great opportunity in life and then deals with the consequences of his unexpected success, we can’t help but feel for him.
It’s an excellent choice to begin Albuquerque’s Southwest Irish Theater Festival, making the well-acted production a tough two acts to follow.
“The Cripple of Inishmaan”
By Martin McDonagh
The Vortex Theatre
2004 1/2 Central Ave. S.E.
Runs through March 4
Friday, Saturday, 7:30 p.m. Sunday, 2 p.m.
$15 general admission, $10 student rush
