Martin McDonagh’s The Cripple of Inishmaan Opens at Palm Beach Dramaworks May 19th

Dramaworks will conclude its season with Martin McDonagh’s The Cripple of Inishmaan.  Six years ago, Dramaworks’ last performance at its former intimate stage on Banyan Street was McDonagh’s The Beauty Queen of Leenane, a play that rips your heart out.  I reviewed it as “grimy and gritty…[with] dark humor that shrouds the entire play.”

But have no such fear seeing The Cripple of Inishmaan as it is essentially a touching comedy, beautifully crafted by a master playwright.  Like Beauty Queen, this play unfolds in a remote setting in Ireland, where people cobble a life out of unforgiving isolation and hardship -- after all, this is Irish Theatre. 

Dreams are in short supply on the desolate island of Inishmaan, particularly for the sensitive, physically challenged Billy Claven.  So when word arrives that an American filmmaker is coming to the neighboring island of Inishmore to make a motion picture (this part is based on fact when the director Robert J. Flaherty went to the Aran Islands in 1931 to make a documentary about the harsh conditions there), Billy yearns for a part in the movie, hoping for a trip to Hollywood and to escape the cruelty and bleakness that engulf him.  

Dramaworks’ usual brilliant casting has called on a mix of newcomers to play alongside several of the incredibly talented South Florida veterans who have graced the Dramaworks stage many times before.  I caught up with some of them and the Director during Dramaworks’ Press Day.

PBD’s production is directed by J. Barry Lewis who has stunningly brought to life scores of South Florida productions.   He commented “This play is truly built around character identity, unique characters caught in a harsh world, some wanting to leave. Each character has very specific human needs and the action flows from that.” He characterizes it as a “dramatic comedy” and thinks one of the minor but particularly oddball characters, Bartley, has a key line which goes to the heart of the play’s theme: “It never hurts to be too kind.”  He added that in PBD’s casting “you create a kind of family with each production.”

Adam Petherbridge

And what a cast!  Among the newcomers is the lead Adam Petherbridge as Billy Claven.  Besides the obvious challenges of playing a young man with such severe physical disabilities, he noted the difficulties of dealing with his changing relationship to the other characters.  “J. Barry has been great in pointing out a path,” he said.  Not so coincidentally, this is his favorite play.  “I read it in college and have always wanted to do the role ever since.  When I saw it listed for casting in NYC about a year ago I said to my agent, let’s go after it!” Petherbridge sees this as “true Irish theatre, particularly in its use of rhythmic language. “

Another NYC based actor making her PBD debut is Adelind Horan who plays the feisty lass, Helen.  She shares a remarkable happenstance with Petherbridge as she has always wanted to play this role since she saw the play when she was 10 years old!  Her parents are both actors and her father once played the role of Babbybobby in the play.  So both actors are fulfilling a dream. 

Adelind Horan

Horan is also the author of a one person play focused on the hardships in the Appalachian region, Cry of the Mountain.  She has been to the Aran Islands and sees “many similarities between the hardships of the people of Appalachia and the people of remote West Ireland.”  Although her character has a hard exterior, “I think Helen likes Billy all along and all the characters essentially have a soft core.”

Billy’s “pretend aunties” are played by Laura Turnbull (Kate) and Elizabeth Dimon (Eileen), two of the finest actors in South Florida, double threats as they are both dramatic and musical performers as well.  And they are also best friends and although they have played opposite one another as friends and even as lovers in past plays, this is the first time they are playing sisters, which describes how they actually feel about one another.  One can only imagine how this deep respect for each other will surface in this production.

Laura Turnbull

Turnbull mentioned “there are dialogue challenges in playing Kate but I love doing an authentic west coast Irish accent (although liberties are taken to make everything clear to the SF audience).”  “I see Kate as a kind woman with a lot to worry about and especially needing to be kind to Billy.” 

Elizabeth Dimon

Elizabeth Dimon said she feels “that while her character, Eileen, is very tender toward Billy, she will correct him when she feels he is wrong.  All the characters have a good heart, but don’t cross them up or make them feel like a fool.  Although bleakness is a given, I love the well written characters and the dialect.”  And she echoed Turnbull’s sentiments about returning again to do a play at Dramaworks, to work with J. Barry and especially the cast.  “It’s like family, a sense of comfort; you know the actors and you know the process.”

Others in the cast or crew of this PBD production are Colin McPhillamy as the “town crier” Johnnypateenmike O’Dougal, Wesley Slade (PBD debut) as Bartley, Helen’s younger brother, Jim Ballard as Babbybobby, Dennis Creaghan as Doctor McSharry, and Harriet Oser as Mammy O’Dougal. Scenic design is by Victor Becker, costume design is by Franne Lee (PBD debut), lighting design is by Paul Black, and sound design is by Steve Shapiro.

The Cripple of Inishmaan opens at Palm Beach Dramaworks on May 19 and continues through June 4, with specially priced previews on May 17 and 18.  The performance schedule includes evening performances Wednesday through Saturday at 8PM, and Sundays at 7PM. Matinee performances are on Wednesday, Saturday, and Sunday at 2PM.  Post-performance discussions follow Wednesday matinee and Sunday evening performances.  Individual tickets are $66, with specially priced preview tickets at $46 and Opening Night tickets at $81.  Student tickets are available for $10; tickets for educators are half price with proper ID (other restrictions apply).  Group rates for 20 or more and discounted season subscriptions are also available.

The Don & Ann Brown Theatre is located in the heart of downtown West Palm Beach, at 201 Clematis Street.  For ticket information contact the box office at (561) 514-4042, or visit www.palmbeachdramaworks.org.  

Wedding Anniversary Redux

47 years ago and it seems like yesterday.   I’ve told our wedding story before in this space, but here’s an edited and expanded version:  I spent the night before our wedding in my apartment at 66 West 85th Street and Ann at hers at 33 West 63rd Street (although we were already living together on and off).  Her apartment would become our first home.

Our one-week trip to Puerto Rico a few months before we were married became, unknown to us at the time, our honeymoon in advance.  I was between my first job in publishing where we had met a few years before and returned from our holiday to start a new one in Westport, CT, which I would occupy for the rest of my working life.

That trip was memorable for several reasons besides being our first vacation together.  We got to see the new 747 when we landed.  Little did I know how often I would fly that plane across the Atlantic and Pacific in my future, frequently with Ann.  Our hotel was on the beach and Tony Conigliaro was staying there, the Red Sox outfielder who was hit by a pitch a couple of years before, but made a comeback and, in fact, that season which he was about to begin would be his best.  Also, I finally got to rent and drive a VW Bug, something I had coveted when I was younger but could not afford to buy and maintain in Brooklyn.  Driving through the rain forest was particularly memorable.  But what I most remember is the high anxiety I felt about starting a new job upon our return.  Consequently in the evenings I would read industry journals and technical books about running a business, something that did not make Ann particularly happy.   

Nonetheless, during that trip we decided that marriage sometime in the future would be preferable to just living together, so upon our return, Ann placed a call to The Ethical Culture Society which she regularly attended.  There was one Leader who she knew personally and admired, Jerome Nathanson, the man she wanted to marry us.  Naturally, we were thinking of sometime that summer but he had only one date open in the next seven or eight months – the following Sunday in exactly one week. We looked at one another and said let’s take it. 

Consequently, Ann began hasty wedding arrangements, including ones to fly her mother and Aunt in from California, picking out a dress for herself and mother to wear, hiring a caterer and picking out flowers.  We chose the list of attendees, mostly our immediate families and closest friends, including a few colleagues from work and of course, my young son Chris from my previous marriage.  Ann’s brother and sister-in-law graciously offered their home in Queens for an informal reception.  Everything had to be done on a shoestring and obviously with a sense of urgency.

The ceremony itself was what one would expect from a brilliant and humorous Humanist Minister.  A substantial part of the service captured our enthusiasm for the then victorious New York Knicks, with names such as Bill Bradley, Dave DeBusschere, Walt Frazier, and Willis Reed sprinkled throughout our wedding vows.  Later that night we returned to my 85th Street apartment.  I had to go to work the next morning, my driving to Westport, while Ann took a one day holiday to spend with her Mother and Aunt Lilly.  So our married life together began.

I posted a brief photographic essay of our years together marking our 42^nd anniversary which can be seen here.

Fast forward to now.  Romantic love deepens into a friendship like no other.  So how did we celebrate? 

First Oysters and Clams on the half shell at Spoto’s and then later, off to the Sunday jazz jam at the Double Roads Tavern in Jupiter with our friends, John and Lois.

There we again saw the upcoming jazz prodigy, Ava Faith, only 13 years old. 

Ava Faith back at Double Roads Tavern Jupiter now. 13 years old and just gets better and better! pic.twitter.com/AvE8zDKEVL

— Robert Hagelstein (@lacunaemusing) April 23, 2017

It will be interesting to watch how she matures but it is good to know that the Great American Songbook is being passed on to a younger generation.  Much credit in this geographic area goes to Legends Radio and its founder Dick Robinson and to the Jupiter Jazz Society and their founders, the incredibly talented keyboardist Rick Moore and his wife Cherie who helps to organize and publicize the traditional Sunday evening jam.

 

As we are on the topic of music, a special shout out to David Einhorn, a professional bass player who had been out of the country for years, and is now back and playing in the area and occasionally comes by our house to jam with me on the piano -- above which his sister Nina’s painting hangs.  

I hear him beating timing into my head, something less important when one plays solo as I have done all of my life.   His recordings with the late, great pianist Dick Morgan are a shining light to me.  Thank you, David.

And thanks Ann for putting up with me these oh so many years!

A card from our friends, Art and Sydelle, hand illustrated by Sydelle

Barbarians IN the Gate

It didn’t take long to deface The Office of the Presidency, celebrity triviality “trumping” expertise and dignity.  To the victor belong the spoils and it is no more in evidence than the recent White House fête personally hosted by Donald Trump, his guests being Sarah Palin, Ted Nugent and Kid Rock, whoever the latter two are.  Supposedly, Sarah invited Ted and Kid because Jesus was busy.  During their four hour run of the White House including a white china dinner they apparently discussed “health, fitness, food, rock ’n’ roll, Chuck Berry and Bo Diddley, secure borders, the history of the United States, guns, bullets, bows and arrows, North Korea, [ and ]Russia.”  It is reassuring to know our President is getting such good advice.

According to NPR, Mr. Nugent described the visit as follows: "Well well well looky looky here boogie chillin', I got your Shot Heard Round The World right here in big ol greazya— Washington DC where your 1 & only MotorCity Madman Whackmaster StrapAssasin1 dined with President Donald J Trump at the WhiteHouse to Make America Great Again! Got that?"

For a fuller account of the symbolic desecration of the White House with some official White House photographs go to Sarah Palin’s website.  This includes a photograph of the three mocking the portrait of former first lady Hillary Clinton.  According to the New York Times, an unnamed person “asked the three to extend their middle fingers beneath the portrait.  ‘I [Mr. Nugent] politely declined,’ he said. ‘Let the juxtaposition speak for itself.’” 

Meanwhile, apropos to this topic, a recent Palm Beach Post cover story revealed the contributions to Donald Trump‘s inaugural committee and not surprisingly, some of the larger contributors are right here in the Palm Beach area, the home of the so-called Southern White House (might as well be the White House given the extent of his time here).  The leading donor in this immediate area was billionaire Chris Cline whose private company has more than three billion tons of coal reserves.  No wonder he was happy to throw in $1million to the inaugural festivities. Presumably such contributions assures a place in the new swamp. It is truly a plutocracy of self-serving popular culture or corporate elitists.  

Jim Wright, the author of the Stonekettle Station blog has written a related essay on this topic,The Hubris of Ignorance.  Wright used to write obsessively in his blog but over time has turned more to Twitter for his incisive jabs.  Thankfully, he’ll still post a lengthy, thoughtful essay.  This is must reading from an ex-military man who sees the world, and the administration, for what it is.  A brief quote from his most recent entry summarizes this issue of expertise (or the lack of it) and “the cultivation of intelligence”: 

The Founding Fathers weren’t amateurs

 The men who freed this country from King George and then went on to forge a new nation were intellectual elites, the educated inheritors of The Renaissance and products of the Early Modern Age. They were able to create a new government because they were experts in government, educated in war and politics and science and religion and economics and social structures and all the hundreds of other things it takes to build a nation instead of tear one down.

Unlike their foolish descendants, the Founders knew that liberty and democracy and good government take far more than shallow patriotism.

Good government takes intellect, education, experience, curiosity, and a willingness to surround leadership with expert advice and support.

More than anything, it takes the cultivation of intelligence instead of pandering to the lowest common denominator.

The Boys of the Hot Florida Summer Play Ball

Major League baseball spring training has now departed the halcyon fields of Florida and the real boys of the hot summer have arrived for Florida League Class A+ minor league ball, the Jupiter Hammerheads (Marlin’s affiliate) and the Palm Beach Cardinals (St. Louis’ affiliate) playing at our home turf of Roger Dean Stadium in Jupiter, FL.  We missed the first Weds. night game of the “Silver Sluggers” promotional circuit, still the best baseball deal around, 30 bucks total for a ticket to every Weds. night game of the season which includes a soda and peanuts.  They used to include a hot dog instead of the peanuts (or pretzel or popcorn) but I suppose cutbacks eliminated this perk.  However they give out an “Official Silver Sluggers membership card” which I guess they think to us seniors is as exciting as getting a Captain Video ring when we were youngsters. 

They’ve also cut back on places to sit and eat near the concession stands (actually, there are no more picnic tables there), requiring you to haul your food and drink to the seat and they don’t even provide a cardboard tray.  Hey, it’s good for you old people to learn balance your food as you walk up the steps! We used to arrive early, have a bite before the game at a table, then watch a little infield practice and then sit back and watch the game.

Roger Dean Stadium is showing its age and rather than providing some seating for eating and sprucing up the place they’ve ignored their new competition of the Ball Park of the Palm Beaches. Right now the BPofTPB is hosting only Spring Training but if they get a minor league team there, Roger Dean Stadium will be affected.

Still, it was a glorious Florida night to take in our first game of the season and serendipitously the visiting team was the Tampa Yankees, the Class A affiliate of the MLB team I most closely follow, the New York Yankees.  Much has been said about the Yankees building their team of the future from their farm clubs rather than signing multiyear contracts with aging free agent stars.  Well, after last night, don’t depend on the Class A affiliate but look to the Trenton Thunder (AA) or The Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders (AAA).

 

Regarding last night’s game, credit goes to Junior Fernandez the Palm Beach Cardinal’s pitcher who is only 20 years old but has been pitching professionally for three years already.  He’s high up on the Cards’ prospect list and for 6 and a third innings he had a perfect game going against Tampa until the Yankee’s #19 prospect, second baseman Nick Solak, got a single with one out in the 7th. Solak also chalked up a double later in the game and those were the only two hits the Tampa Yankees had.  Meanwhile, they managed to play a downright sloppy game, their two errors leading to three unearned runs which left Yankee starter and #13 prospect Domingo Acevedo with the loss, although his 99 MPH fastball was humming, leading to 6 strikeouts in 6 innings.

The much touted Yankee shortstop prospect (#4) Jorge Mateo had a lackluster game going 0 for four and his infield play was unimpressive.  Maybe it was just an off day, but he’ll have to play better than that to make the parent team one of these days.

Although the game was unremarkable (except for the nearly perfect game), the night was wonderful, enjoying the Florida breeze and the cadence of baseball.  I’ve seen many Class A ball games and I’ve always said that they are as professional as MLB in every way.  Last night was the first disappointment in that regard as, at times, the Tampa Yankees looked like a bunch of sandlot players.  But as they say, wait ‘till next week!