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The budget-friendly
solo performance has become such a ubiquitous staple of
contemporary theater that it's spawned three distinct sub-genres
-- the more familiar being the portrait of a historical celebrity
and the author-performer's autobiographical journey of
self-discovery. Rarer, but offering more of the rewards of
traditional drama, is the kind of work faultlessly epitomized in
Conor McPherson's "The Good Thief" at the Court Theatre.
No one invests the monologue form with the narrative artistry and
momentum of a fully scripted play better than McPherson, the Irish
playwright primarily known in this country for "The Weir," "St.
Nicholas" and "This Lime Tree Bower." Here, in little more than an
hour, actor Brian d'Arcy James immerses his audience with
cinematic immediacy in the gritty underworld and nightmare odyssey
of McPherson's nameless narrator, a two-bit thug who gets in over
his head when a bungled intimidation job puts him at odds with his
sociopathic racketeer employers.
After a tense episode of frenzied impulse reactions to fast-moving
events spiraling out of control (the kind of scene that is one of
McPherson's fortes), the thief takes it on the lam with his
intended victim's wife and child in tow, closely followed by
killers intent on leaving no witnesses.
On one level, "The Good Thief" is a gripping suspense yarn,
chronicling the narrator's desperate efforts to dodge both the
police and his criminal pursuers. At the same time, it's a deeply
involving psychological drama about his tentative moral awakening,
as he becomes unexpectedly attached to his inadvertent traveling
companions.
Impressively, the piece never resorts to facile Hollywood cliches
-- the connection between the thief and the victim's wife remains
partial and steeped in distrust on both sides. McPherson's
writerly gift for enlisting sympathy through deflection and
suggestive details -- the wife's surprising lack of concern for
her husband's condition, an infant's tight grip on the narrator's
finger that melts through his defenses -- grounds the story in
believable emotional complexity. Most convincing of all is the
total confusion with which the antihero reacts to his first
experience of ethical principles.
Carl Forsman's assured staging employs sparse but inventive
lighting effects to punch pivotal moments without distracting from
James' riveting performance, which strikes not a single false
note.
*
'The Good Thief'
Where: Court Theatre, 722 N. La Cienega Blvd., West Hollywood
When: Thursday-Friday, Sunday, 8 p.m.; Saturday, 8 and 9:45 p.m.
Ends: Feb. 23, Price: $25, Contact: (323) 655-TKTS, Running time:
1 hour, 5 minutes |
