A Pittsburgh Carol

"It's another filthy morning but with a star in the east."

This description of Christmas, in a throwaway sentence buried deep in Conor McPherson's Dublin Carol, contains the McPherson paradigm. In the young Irish playwright's world, the basest human existence is in tandem with a spirituality always on the edges, like a distant star shining through a dirty window. Dublin Carol, currently at the Pittsburgh Irish Classical Theatre, is an uneven work. It is not his most effective or compelling work, but it is important for the glimpses at McPherson's future modus operandi. He is as interested in the emotional state of the Irish male as he ever was. McPherson will work DC's themes to more success in his later Christmas play, last December's The Seafarer. It is ambitious and commendable for the PICT to tackle this heavy-going holiday fare, an undertaker's Christmas, rather than the ubiquitous A Child's Christmas in Wales. There are three productions of CCW in New York as I type this. 

It was a filthy night in Pittsburgh  - to some. I thought it beautiful! A light snowfall looked beatific on Pittsburgh's terrifying hills.  A wonderful night to walk to the Henry Heymann Theatre where the PICT presented DC on the University of Pittsburgh city campus. Larry John Meyers convincingly plays John Plunkett, an undertaker who is faced with the crimes of his alcoholism by his estranged daughter Mary (Colleen Madden). Like Ebeneezer Scrooge, John is faced with this ghost of his past - he hasn't seen his daughter in ten years. She comes with news that his wife is dying in the hospital. John wrestles with his past and present while attempting to be of help to the future, a young man who works with him at the funeral home. John is no one to be telling Mark (played by the appealing Jason Planitzer) how to live life, but he does so anyway between mugs of Powers. 

This is no play of Dickensian reinvention and happy endings. This is a Christmas Carol for the realities of modern Ireland. John has a serious drinking problem. His beloved employer, Noel, who rescued John from the gutter is himself seriously ill. There is no goose for the Cratchit family, or even a "God Bless Us Everyone," but John does commit to visiting his wife's death bed, and it is one step. If he actually takes the step. The play is left intentionally open-ended. Will John visit his wife? It seems he may. Will Mark choose a different road than John did? Hopefully.  The drama remains a problem play: the characters Mary and offstage Noel offer unconditional love and forgiveness to John, but the playwright asks the audience to condemn John. At least at first.  Then to forgive. This can be difficult to do since John can't seem to forgive himself. Without forgiving himself, John can't make that first step toward recovery. There is the distinct possibility that John will not meet up with Mary. Either Mary. Mary the daughter or Mary the Mother of God. The evening was directed by Jackie Maxwell, taking a visit south of the border from the wondrous Shaw Festival in Ontario. 

Themes of sin and redemption, guilt and absolution, rebirth through baptism, and good, old-fashioned old timey religion are so pervasive through Dublin Carol that even the local news tv channel got swept up in it, calling the Pittsburgh Irish Classical Theatre, the Pittsburgh Irish Catholic Theatre. See for yourself.

The play at PICT runs in conjunction with McPherson's St. Nicholas. I couldn't stay in town for that, but I have fond memories of seeing the show

with Brian Cox as the bitter theatre critic at Primary Stages in 1998. Ten years ago! Mr. Cox was the original John Plunkett when Dublin Carol opened in London, 2000. 

This week's New York magazine singled out Brian d'Arcy James' performance in McPherson's Port Authority, Alvin Epstein in Beckett's Endgame, and Zoe Kazan in The Seagull as three of the year's unforgettable theatre moments. These actors all appeared here in this blog this year. This reminds me - I must get going on my best of list. Expect that in May 2010.