THEATRE REVIEW:
KPBS AIRDATE: April 22, 2005
At one of San Diego’s smallest theaters, 6th @
Penn, a big, international double-header – a Greek tragedy and an Irish comedy.
The classic is Sophocles’ “Antigone” and the contemporary comedy is “A Skull in
Connemara,” by acclaimed English/Irish playwright, Martin McDonagh.
“Antigone” is considered one of the greatest tragedies ever
written, successful from its first production in 441 B.C. The timeless play is
particularly timely right now, as it concerns the conflict between moral
conscience and government policy. The relevance is not lost on the politically
astute translator, Marianne McDonald -- or the gifted director, Delicia Turner
Sonnenberg, who has the smiling tyrant Creon, King of Thebes, make a splashy
entrance under a Greek-English banner that says “Mission Accomplished.”
Many excellent directorial touches, and a potent cast,
energize this story of one woman’s ferocious defense of family in the face of a
despotic leader who puts his law above the gods’. Creon only recants after the
soothsayer Teiresias foretells his horrific fate. But by then it’s too late and
the bodies pile up. As Antigone, Jennifer Eve Kraus starts out with a bit of macha Valley Girl up-speak, but winds up
proud and powerful as she goes nobly off to her death. Sylvia M’Lafi Thompson
is terrific as the blind Teiresias, otherworldly and unrecognizable, with
vacant blue eyes and a beard. But it is Dale Morris’ smug, smirking Creon who
takes the most profound emotional journey, and who shows that even the most
impregnable fortress can crumble. The play has endured for 2500 years because
it’s eternally relevant. See it as a classic or a cautionary tale, a story that
questions the meaning of loyalty, piety, rigidity, self-righteousness, heroism,
justice, treason and compromise. Read into it what you will.
Not much to read into “A Skull in Connemara,” though the
mysteries of this town of grave secrets-and-lies unfold at a pulse-raising
pace, under the direction of Forrest Aylsworth. The pitch-black comedy centers
on Mick Dowd, excellently embodied by Charlie Riendeau, a crusty guy who did
time for killing his wife in a drunk-driving accident seven years ago. Now he’s
got a job digging up graves to make room for new cemetery occupants. This time,
one of the skeletons belongs to his wife. And he’s dogged by a thick-headed
teenage troublemaker (wonderfully portrayed by young Chris Bresky), a
dim-witted cop, crisply played by Chris White, and their whiskey- and
bingo-loving granny, the delightfully dour Grace Delaney. In McDonagh’s stark
Irish landscape, people don’t band together against the harsh conditions; they
turn on each other. And we watch with ghoulish glee.
So, whether you like your drama Greek or Gothic, there’s
something for everyone any night of the week at 6th @ Penn.
©2005 Patté Productions Inc.