Boys Night Out
Gayle Bartos-Pool
March 03, 2009
Director Tim Byron Owen used a masterful touch having most of the cast already on stage, sitting around the bar, singing Irish drinking songs while the audience files in. The set alone, designed by Jeff G. Rack, captures the flavor of the time and place, some fifty years ago.
As Mr. Bradbury said in his opening remarks, this play came about after he spent nearly a year in Kilcock, Ireland, working on the screenplay for Moby Dick with director John Houston. Knowing Houston´s reputation with liquor, it isn´t a wonder that substantial time was spent in the local drinking establishments. From these evenings came many marvelous stories and eventually five plays that Mr. Bradbury molded into this rousing evening.
Our guide through these hearty tales is Garrity, the local "Seanchai" or historian of the town, played with marvelous charm by Pat Harrington, Jr. The incomparable Mr. Harrington introduced the stories and often became a part of them.
The first short vignette introduced Heeber Finn, the owner of the pub himself, played with heart and humor by the talented Mik Scriba. A mighty man, Finn rules the pub, but he knows how to listen to his customers, one being the local priest, Father Liam Leary, played by Walter Beery. Both tavern keeper and priest mention how much they have in common when they realize both liquor and the confessional loosen lips and bare souls.
Another brief story told of how Constable Bannion, played by Robert W. Laur, made his rounds to the many bars in town, and there are many. This is Ireland after all. The hotel clerk, played by Austin Grehan, phones Finn at the pub and keeps everyone informed as to the constable´s progress closing down the bars for the evening. Drinks are tossed back faster and faster as the cop gets closer and closer. Finally Finn has to reluctantly call, "Time, Boyos" to his thirsty customers and they depart.
One hilarious story opened with news of the death of an 88-year-old man in town who happened to own a large stash of liquor. As mouths water, it is learned the man left a codicil to his will saying all that fine wine must be poured over his grave, because he had decided "he can take it with him." Where there´s a will, there´s a way. The men determined that wine could reach the same destination, but through a more circuitous route. They drank all that lovely liquor and then…let it rain.
The second act brings a group of unusual tourists to the small town. Here in this rainy village come six men from sunny Sicily, dressed all in white and presumably up to no good. The men at Finn´s are suspicious. They assume these tourists come from Venus. They make a few clever jokes about Fire Island and Oscar Wilde, and even Father Leary wants the men at the pub to spy on these strangers. But Garrity, reaching back into the history of Ireland, realizes there is a lot of similarity between these strangers and the local boys: they like to drink and sing and dance, and neither like to spend too much time with women. Garrity asks, "Who do you know best? Finn or your mother-in-law?" And the leader of these "merry men," David Snell Orkney, played by the absolutely disarming actor, James Horan, charms even the cold heart of the Mighty Finn himself and makes a friend.
This is a rousing evening with plenty of Irish folk songs and witty tales to make you smile. Pat Harrington is such a charmer, you´d swear there was a Leprechaun in his back pocket. And Ray Bradbury´s love for his fellow man permeates the entire program. Drink it up.
Falling Upward runs through Sunday, April 5, 2009, at the El Portal Theatre, on the main stage, 5269 Lankershim Blvd., North Hollywood. Performances Thursdays – Saturdays at 8 p.m., Sundays at 3 p.m. The pre-show entertainment, live on-stage, starts 20 minutes before curtain.
Reservations: (866) 811-4111, Toll Free. Online: www.raybradburyfallingupward.com Admission: $30-$40.
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