from www.dane101.com
Submitted by Christian on Sat, 2006-01-14 19:58. Arts | Theater
These were a big couple of days for local theater, with good news and bad: three opening weekends and CTM’s announcement that that the long-standing family theater company has canceled the remainder of its season (reported in the Capital Times and State Journal). One of the plays opening was Broom Street Theater’s A Wake, written and directed by Callen Harty, which also combines hopefulness and melancholy.
Madstage provides a good summary of the story (you can even look at a PDF file of the script on the BST site). All you really need to know is that Adam Molony is dead and that you’re present at an Irish wake. What’s most satisfying about A Wake isn’t the advancement of a plot but the interactions between the many characters, and getting to know this family that combines the familiar and the outrageous. Three generations are represented, which leads to some predictable tension (especially in the area of mother Malony’s religion), though expressed in an interesting and engaging manner. There are also a lot of laughs, courtesy of some absurd situations, witty dialogue and amusing secondary characters (including a trio of hilarious farmers).
Overall, the play’s staging and dialogue are done in a very natural style, including the parts that dealt with the more bizarre aspects of the characters’ lives. There is a clever metaphorical sequence involving a parade of mourners. There are also a couple of re-enactments to illustrate two stories that the deceased’s cousin tells. It was difficult for me to fully appreciate the first one, given its length and how stylistically different it was from what preceded it, but enjoyed the second one. The play has only one instance of “fast forwarding” ahead in time (there’s no intermission) and makes good use of the theater space; A Wake is extremely well-suited for Broom Street’s audience seating arrangement, which as the audience adjoining three sides of the stage.
While the play has many characters, each one has a distinctive voice. The cast, most of whom portray multiple roles, is a skilled ensemble. Scott Rawson delivers his many humorous lines with spot-on timing, and seven-year-old Destiny Sabljak has one of the best lines of the play, given the context.
Like many things Irish, the play maintains good spirits without losing sight of the tragic. There’s a good distribution and placement of humorous and emotionally charged sequences. The body is present for the entire play, and there are some gratifyingly three-dimensional conversations about ritual, grief and faith. There’s the intriguing observation that “You gotta laugh at something, Ma. Might as well be about the things you can’t control,” and a very moving and satisfying conclusion.