PHILADELPHIA, HERE I COME! To 3 April.

Tour

PHILADELPHIA, HERE I COME!
by Brian Friel

The Association of Regional Theatres (Northern Ireland) Tour to 3 April 2004
Runs 2hr 10min One interval
Review: Timothy Ramsden 24 March at Palace Theatre Westcliffe-on-Sea

Early Friel given a physical spring.Where would English theatre be without Ireland? And, Brian Friel being a master of later 20th century English-language drama, it's little wonder Northern Ireland's theatres, having assembled to produce their own work, should begin with one of his plays. Nor that Adrian Dunbar (himself a notable actor) should relish directing it.

If ART (NI) maintain this quality, let's hope they continue to cross the water four English weeks (this being week three) conclude an extensive tour. Friel's first major play has been revived in London, but this is still a rare opportunity.

Dunbar's production's distinctive for its physical flair - the zippy title, adapting a breezy song-line, is matched by the opening brio onstage. Nothing ponderous about the way Ruaidhri Conroy's young Gar dashes round the stage the night before, as many others have done, he leaves Ireland for the States, to live with relatives in Philadelphia. Though the genteel deliberation with which his aunt dons her gloves hardly represents the life he's looking for.

Gar's public energy's exceeded if anything his inner self, physicalised in Marty Rea, who leaps onto the kitchen table in elation at cutting ties with the old life the steady grind in the family store, uncommunicative relations, the disappointed love of an unconfident suitor, friends with only surface camaraderie and bravado.

Friel's techniques etched-in scenes building to a continuum of a central character's experience, the use of a separate actor to express Gar's unspoken thoughts - were innovatory in mainstream drama at the play's 1964 premiere, though they've been used since notably by Peter Nichols, who employed the inner double' in Passion Play.

Philadelphia's mainstream-accessible in its fascinating picture of small-town life in Friel's imaginary Ballybeg, with clear, rounded characters and a sense of human experience constructed scene by scene. Like the friends' visit, with its improvised present and casually-delivered destruction of Gar's belief he meant something to these young men.

By the time the reflective, almost suspended, close comes, contrasting the opening confidence, we understand this world, and the experience of parting as if we'd lived it. A fine production of a masterly play.

Madge: Eileen Pollock
Gar O' Donnell (Public): Ruaidhri Conroy
Gar O' Donnell (Private): Marty Rea
S.B. O' Donnell: Walter McMonagle
Kate Doogan/Mrs King: Pauline Hutton
Senator Doogan: Myles Purcell
Master Boyle: John O' Toole
Lizzy Sweeny: Stella McCusker
Con Sweeny: Peter Holmes
Ben Burton: Nick Hardin
Ned: Conan Sweeny
Tom: Marc O' Shea
Joe: David Quinn
Canon Mick O' Boyle: Denis Quilligan

Director: Adrian Dunbar
Designer/Costume: Monica Frawley
Lighting: Paul Keogan
Movement: Jason Webb
Voice: Patricia Logue

2004-03-25 11:07:28