BRENDAN (presented by Happy Medium Theatre @ BCA thru July 30th)
is Ronan Noone’s sweet tragic-comedy about a shy Irish immigrant who would
rather roll with the punches than direct his own life. He meanders about, never
straying far from the other Irish ex-pats at the bar where he works.
Co-directors Brett Marks and Victor L. Shopov concentrate on
the lovely character work by the Happy Medium folk and less on their Irish
accents, which come and go (but I quickly forgot about the lapse because the
quirky story is so compelling).
When you become familiar with local actors, it’s a treat to
see them stretch–and Happy Medium regulars Audrey Lynn Sylvia and Mikey
DiLoreto do, in roles they don’t often get to play. DiLoreto is a deft comedian
but here he shows what he can do with several spot-on serious turns. Sylvia
gives a tour de force as the hooker with a heart of gold. She’s so delightful
in the role, I wished she’d gotten the guy!
The guy is played by Avery Bargar: Sometimes he’s a sad sack
and sometimes he’s so earnest and bashful that it breaks your heart. Just when
he learns that his mother has died back in the old country, doesn’t she just
show up as a sort of ghostly life-coach! Happy Medium’s Kiki Samko gives a
canny, sometimes tongue-in-cheek performance as the long suffering mum Brendan
misses terribly but wishes would leave. (Samko plays niftily against type and
age as the frumpy matriarch.)
Happy Medium’s Michael
Underhill gets to strut
his stuff in a number of showy roles, as does Mike Budwey, among them playing
brother to Lesley Anne Moreau as Brendan’s almost-not-happening love interest.
Part of the fun in BRENDAN comes from the characters who surprisingly
intersect… especially with Sylvia’s hooker.
Marks and Shopov get fine performances all around, from the HM
regulars to newcomers Jay Street
and Melody Martin. Oh, now don’t be alarmed but opera figures important in
Noone’s play. It’s because Brendan yearns to see a production at the
Metropolitan Opera in New York.
We hear snippets of oratorio/ opera throughout: Carmina Burana, Il
Trovatore, Madame Butterfly, Tales of Hoffmann, La Wally, etc.
Only one aria, “La Donna è Mobile” from Rigoletto,
has a direct bearing on the play: Brendan might well conclude that “Women
are Fickle” when the woman who buys him very, very expensive Metropolitan
Opera tickets breaks up with him over his taste in friends. Not to worry, it all shakes out in the end… and we even get
to see an immigrant’s dream come true, to the strains of the gorgeous Pachelbel
Canon.
