Theater Review
An Irish classic gets a vigorous staging

By Richard Wallace
Special to The Seattle Times

MARC B. MALONE Tracy Repep, left, John Wray and Ethan Savaglio in Exchange Theatre's production of John M. Synge's "The Playboy of the Western World," first performed in 1907.

E-mail this article Print this article Search archive Most read articles Most e-mailed articles

In 1907, when Irish playwright John M. Synge's poetic comedy "The Playboy of the Western World" premiered in Dublin at the newly established Abbey Theatre, the audience went berserk when the word "shift" was spoken onstage. A shift is a petticoat.

More shocking yet was the story Synge told: A young Irish farm lad stumbles into a pub in the wild regions of Western Ireland. He claims he has just murdered his father, smashing him over the head with a farm tool. More intrigued than horrified, the poor villagers hail him as a celebrity. Then, when events challenge the young man's tale, they violently turn on him.

Such ignoble actions were not the cultural values Ireland wanted its young national theater to explore. Synge's play was attacked in the newspapers as blasphemous, vile, false and un-Irish. Time and modern history have changed all that. Now, it is regarded as one of Ireland's classics.

Exchange Theatre's solid fringe production of the show, in its new home at Seattle Public Theater, has a nice grubby look. Craig Wollam's set is sparse: a bar, a table and chairs, a window seat and a tiny glowing hearth. Not much to look at but a warm place to hide from the weather.

Andrew Hamilton's sound design gives us rain that sounds cold and soggy, and costume designer Jennifer Mikel makes sure you see plenty of muddy clothes.

Theater review "The Playboy of the Western World," by John M. Synge, produced by Exchange Theatre, runs through Nov. 28, Seattle Public Theater at the Bathhouse, 7312 W. Green Lake Drive N., Seattle; $18-$20 (206-524-1300 or www.seattlepublictheater.org).

This physicality is emphasized in director Vincent Brady's staging. Sometimes his blocking is overtly broad, but most often it catches the spontaneous impulses people have in funny or emotional moments.

For example: When Widow Quin (Ailsa Prideaux-Mooney) and Pegeen Mike (Tracy Repep), the pub owner's daughter, vie for the attentions of "playboy" Christy Mahon (Ethan Savaglio), they almost pull the poor guy apart. You can almost hear the seams of his jacket ripping.

"The Playboy of the Western World" has two monster parts — Pegeen Mike and Christy Mahon. As Pegeen, Repep gives a strong, confident performance. Here is a woman who is trapped in a world that has no future; hope is ignited by a man who speaks like the angels; then the circle closes and she is back where she started.

Repep is our heartfelt guide as the play moves from comedy to farce to a wounding sense of loss that is both modern and timeless.

Savaglio, as Christy Mahon, is the audience magnet, rarely offstage. He first enters as a wet, shivering mess of a traveler. He gains stature from the opinions of others. He falls in love, endures ridicule, but refuses to buckle.

Savaglio hasn't quite mastered all these shifts, but when he is onstage with Repep his performance is steady as a gas flame.

Other actors provide memorable moments: Edwin Stone as Michael Flaherty, Pegeen Mike's father, blessing the rather unusual union of his daughter and an alleged murderer. Katie Rodgers as Sara Tansey, a rambunctious village girl smelling Christy Mahon's boot ("That's bog water, I'm thinking"). And John Wray as Old Mahon, Christy's father knocking his son to the floor.

Copyright © 2004 The Seattle Times Company

E-mail this article

Print this article

Search archive

More Entertainment & the Arts headlines...