Craig Barnett, Marie Broderick, Carla Barnett and Kevin Kelly (Photo by Jeff Lorch)
Reviewed by Martίn Hernández
The Other Space Theater
Through October 25
With ample editing and steadier staging, playwright/director Michael J. Harney’s earnest work could offer an absorbing metaphysical glimpse at the redemptive powers of love and spirituality on a tortured artist turned unrepentant addict. However, Harney’s working “improvisationally for months” with his actors has resulted in longwinded poetical dialogue, protracted scenes, inflated and stereotyped characters, and a tedious three-hour-long production. As the old adage goes: “Sometimes less is more.” It’s a proverb Harney may wish to embrace.
Once a promising writer, 40-somtehing Danny (Kevin Kelly) is a bitter yet good-natured junkie living in a squalid sixth floor walkup in 1980’s New York. Floundering in self-pity after years of publishers’ rejection letters, he scrapes by as a street clown in a local park. At least he can make kids laugh — a rationalization comforting to a man who has yet to grow up. Despite his long-suffering friends’ encouragement to get back to his art, Danny prefers tapping on a smack-filled syringe rather than on the keys of a typewriter.
At an especially low point for the Irish Catholic Danny, he is visited by Nathaniel (Oscar Best), a divine messenger heaven-bent on saving Danny from his increasingly downward spiral. Through flashbacks, Nathaniel has Danny revisit his encounter with Christine (Marie Broderick), a downstairs neighbor whose compassion served as a steppingstone in Danny’s potential redemption. While her own traumas far outweigh Danny’s, Christine’s ardor for him – and his for her – becomes all-consuming, and they begin a long-term affair improbably sparked after their first night together. Then again, desperate people can find themselves in overly intense relationships.
Danny also endures grandiose harangues from less empathetic folks. Danny’s older brother Francis (Robert Kerbeck) is a successful businessman and cutthroat warrior for capitalism. Francis callously ascribes Danny’s woes to his sensitive nature and artistic inclinations in a growing up that precluded him from following a more lucrative path (He suffered physical abuse.) Stereotyped dealer Raoul (Ralph Guzzo) exploits Danny’s passive ways by making him grovel before giving him a much needed fix. But then there are folks like Maddie (an endearing Lisa Richards), an elderly Irish neighbor who shares weed and tales of her girlhood support of the Irish Republican Army.
Still, these and other scenes run too long and seem meant to display an actor’s scenery chewing performance rather than move the story forward. Kelly and others often seem to be struggling for lines and miss their cues.
Fritz Davis’s slide projection designs, from pre-opening visuals of the urban squalor of the Lower East Side in the 1980s to astral and nature images, effectively transmit the mood between scenes. While designer Joel Daavid’s detailed set reflects Danny’s squalor, crew members end up taking excessive time to place props between scenes.
Lightning Horse Productions, The Actors Company, 916 N. Formosa Ave., West Hollywood; Fri.-Sat., 8 pm, Sun., 2 pm; thru Oct. 26. www.onstage411.com/DannyBoy Running time three hours, plus 15 minute intermission.
