Arts & Entertainment
- John (Jonathan Cantor, left) unburdens himself to his therapist (David Sedgwick) who has issues of ohis own.
Gripping Irish Drama "Shining City" at Shadow Lawn Stage
By Philip Dorian
Every summer, Shadow Lawn Stage includes an Irish play in their summer season at Monmouth University. Considering the rich trove of established playwrights like Sean O'Casey and Brendan Behan and the current output of modernists like Martin McDonagh and Conor McPherson, 'tis unlikely Shadow Lawn will ever run out. Thirty-eight year old McPherson's Shining City, which prompted the London Telegraph to label him "the finest dramatist of his generation," is this year's offering.
The 90-minute play explores guilt, loneliness, confession-as-cure and even mysticism. The setting is a Dublin psychiatrist's office, where Ian (David Sedgwick), having rejected the priesthood for a 'civilian' therapy practice, has as many secrets as his first patient John (Jonathan Cantor). Sensitively directed by Monmouth's Assistant Professor of Theatre Arts Nicole Ricciardi, and admirably performed by four perfectly-cast (no small compliment) actors, Shining City is compelling drama.
Two of the play's five scenes are John's therapy sessions, months apart, in which he talks at length about the circumstances surrounding his wife's death, his transgressions before and since and his overwhelming sense of guilt. The role is something of a tour de force, and John's taxing soliloquies ring true, coming across as if un-memorized, un-rehearsed, completely natural. At the end of the first one, in which he confesses that he sees the ghost of his dead wife, John asks Ian, "Do you believe me?" "I believe you," the therapist replies. So did I, which sums up my critique of Cantor's performance.
Sedgwick's Ian listens attentively, with his own anxieties masked. His conflicts surface in scenes with his common-law girlfriend Neasa (Maria Silverman), with whom he has a child, and with Laurence (Buddy Haardt), a desperate young father who counsels that closeness is its own reward. Those scenes illustrate the seeming contradiction of reaching out and pushing away at the same time.
Sedgwick's is an effective, understated performance. Silverman plays Neasa's frustration well, if somewhat shrilly. "Have you met someone else?" she asks, before confessing a needy affair of her own. Sedgwick and Haardt's brief scene is a study in awkward communication. More is acted than spoken - and acted very well.
Shining City suggests that emotions and feelings have real substance, that they never really terminate, but just hover somewhere. That one's love, hate, guilt or whatever, once shed, simply wait to reappear in a convenient, unwary host. Ms. Ricciardi's staging of the play's startling conclusion errs in one important aspect, lessening the impact. What has gone before, however, is first-rate Theatre.
"Shining City" plays through this weekend at the Woods Theatre at Monmouth University, West Long Branch. Performances are Thursday-Saturday at 8 p.m. and Sunday at 3 and 7 p.m. For tickets ($25): 732-263-6889 or online at www.monmouth.edu/shadowlawnstage