Playwright: John Patrick Shanley
At: Mary-Arrchie Theatre at Angel
Island Theater, 731 W. Sheridan
Phone: 773-871-0442; $18-$22
Through June 29
Photo by Kirstie Shanley
BY SCOTT C. MORGAN
A lot of kids go through an 'asking-'Why?'' phase with their parents. This can be annoying for both parties, especially if the kid's questioning becomes relentless, or if the parents refuse to deliver satisfactory answers.
This dynamic is felt throughout the 1991 drama Beggars in the House of Plenty, a reportedly semi-autobiographical work by John Patrick Shanley ( the Academy Award-winning author of Moonstruck and Pulitzer Prize-winner for Doubt ) . At times you feel riveted by all the revelations and after-effects of abuse. Other times you want the questioning characters to shut up and get over themselves.
With Beggars, Shanley explores his troubled family life in the form of flashbacks with characters living in the moment and also commenting from an older perspective. It's a confusing dynamic that the Chicago premiere cast of Mary-Arrchie Theatre struggle with stylistically under the direction of Kevin Christopher Fox, particularly in the first scene, when it's largely about the happiest times of each family member's lives.
Guiding us through this look at family life in the Bronx during the 1950s and '60s is the character of Johnny ( Carlo Lorezo Garcia ) . There's even a suggested confrontation from beyond the grave, where his violent and unloving father comes back to bash some sense into Johnny and his older brother, Joey ( Daniel Behrendt ) .
The main question Johnny has is why he was able to withstand his malevolent pop ( Karl Potthoff ) and accommodating Ma ( Mary Jo Bolduc ) . That's compared to Joey ( Johnny's boyhood hero/tormentor ) , who ended up falling apart later as an adult. It's a valid question, but Shanley harps so much on it that it veers into theater as a personal therapy session that you don't always want to be listening in on.
Even if the script presents an uneven tone of satire and seriousness that sometimes slips the grasp of the cast, you have to admire how they throw themselves into their roles and wrench out tortured emotions. Behrendt's Joey is particularly effective, straddling both the tough guy stance demanded of most men while teetering on emotional collapse while seeking his father's approval. Bolduc's worrying Ma offers great comic relief.
Also making brief cameo appearances are Joey's sister, Sheila ( Shannon Clausen ) , and Catholic nun aunt Sister Mary Kate ( Laura Shatkus ) , who both get in some good zingers in the opening scene. Potthoff's pop is truly menacing ( if a bit one-note in performance ) . Garcia's Johnny is effective, though not as endearing as you'd wish.
Though there's much to admire in Mary-Arrchie's Beggars ( particularly the shifting set by John Wilson ) , it does make you question what kind of benefit Shanley gets from theatricalizing and sharing his family's dirty laundry. That only produces even more 'whys' to the unanswered ones in the play.