ARMACOST LIGHTS UP THE NULLITY OF SHINING CITY
Hot on the heels of Steppenwolf’s production of Conor McPherson’s newest play The Night Alive comes Irish Theatre of Chicago’s current production of McPherson’s Shining City (2004). Both plays share certain similarities: ironic titles, unexpected endings, sex workers, tense situations, and a preoccupation with life beyond the grave, just to name a few. Shining City is a rather more low-key drama that revels in socially-awkward situations. Jeff Christian directs it in a stripped-down, realist manner that allows the production’s excellent lead actors to shine. But this tricky play needs a consistent low-lying tension and a palpable sense of haunting, as the script is intentionally filled with Pinteresque dead air. The script’s tenuousness creates a vacuum that the uneven pacing of this production does not resolve.
Shining City centers on Ian (Coburn Goss), an ex-priest reinventing himself as a therapist, and his sessions with the widower John (Brad Armacost), who harbors guilt over his wife’s death because of an unconsummated love affair. Punctuating the two therapy sessions are intimate glimpses into Ian’s own life: First, we see Ian breaking off his relationship with Neasa (Carolyn Kruse), the mother of his child, and the row that follows; later, we get an intimation why, as Ian experiments with a male sex worker, Laurence (Shane Kenyon). In the fifth and final scene, all seems to be resolved as both patient and therapist bid each other farewell and best of luck.
Armacost does most of the talking in Shining City, essentially delivering two lengthy monologues in the opening and middle scenes. He expresses so much nuance of emotion in his face and voice that we are compelled to hear him out, despite his fumbling for words. Kruse, by contrast, assaults us with her emotions. Goss’s Ian oozes sincerity, even when facing Neasa and Laurence; he manages to retain our sympathy even when his actions are hardly praiseworthy.
Ira Amyx and John Peplinski’s set design lovingly evokes Ireland in every detail, from the electrical outlets in the wall to the cityscape model behind the Gothic windows of Ian’s office. The windows suggest not only Ian’s own priestly background, but his continuing use of church property.
McPherson’s Shining City seems to be most concerned with belief and unbelief. Implicit is Ian’s crisis of faith. More explicitly, there is the question of ghosts, since John claims to be haunted by his deceased wife. Ian tries to avoid affirming that John really saw her ghost, claiming instead that John’s experience was real. He fudges the issue in much the same way that McPherson fudges his message in Shining City. This outing by Irish Theatre of Chicago (formerly Seanachaà Theatre Company) provides no resolution.
photos by Emily Schwartz
Shining City
Irish Theatre of Chicago
(formerly Seanachaà Theatre Company)
The Den Theatre, 1333 N. Milwaukee Ave.
scheduled to end on January 4, 2015
for tickets, call 773.878.3727 or visit www.irishtheatreofchicago.org
for info on this and other Chicago Theater, visit www.TheatreinChicago.com