Tuesday, September 20, 2011

Theater Review: Temporal Powers

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Aidan Redmond and Rosie Benton
in Temporal Powers
(© Richard Termine)
A Lost Engaging Tale of Greed and Love
By Lauren Yarger
Just what is right and wrong, and who gets to decide? Those questions weigh heavily in the balance of a troubled marriage and poverty in Temporal Powers, the second of Teresa Deevy's plays being resurrected by the fine Mint Theater Company.
Michael and Min Donovan (Aidan Redmond and Rosie Benton) find themselves living in a dilapidated hovel after being evicted from their farm in 1927 Ireland. Dependent on neighbor Moses Barron Eli James) to bring a few scraps of food and a blanket, Min turns on her husband, blaming him for taking away any chance she had at a better life when he was content to be a poor farmer. Mick feels that he has been true to himself by doing the work that was put before him and not seeking wealth.
When Mick finds a sum of money hidden in the dwelling, Min starts making plans for a new life in America. Her husband, wants to do what's right, but even after it appears that no-good Ned Cooney (Con Horgan) hid the money after robbing the post office, Min convinces Mick to consider keeping it. He seeks the advice of their ineffectual priest Father O'Brien (Robertson Carricart).
Convinced that Michael won't heed her wishes, Min plots with Cooney to take the money by force, unaware that Michael might just change what he believes is "right" because of his love for her. Helping and hindering in the process of defining "right" and "wrong" are a group of neighbors: Jim Slattery (Paul Carlin), Ned's long-suffering wife, Maggie (Bairbre Dowling) and Daisy (Fiana Toibin), Moses sharp-tongued mother who disapproves of Lizzie Brennan (Wrenn Schmidt) who has her cap set for Moses. How much has their poverty influenced their morals?
Deevy creates deep and likable characters, despite their flaws, who grapple with some very raw and real issues to which we all can relate, even now,  some nine decades after it was written (the title, after all, refers to the power of wordly situations over spiritual concerns). The Mint's Artistic Director Jonathan Bank, who also directed last year's Wife to James Whelan in the company's Deevy Project, deftly helms Temporal on Vicki R. Davis' simple set on the small stage (a side entrance proves problematic in the scheme of things, but otherwise nicely creates the hovel). There are strong performances across the board here, an we especially can't help but sputter at Toibin's creation of the annoyingly acerbic, smothering mother.
The play runs two and a half hours with two intermissions through Oct. 9 at  311 West 43rd St., NYC. Tickets are available by calling the Mint box office at 212/315-0231 or go to www.minttheater.org
Christians might also like to know:
Violence
Great play about great issues. Enjoy.
Posted by Lauren Yarger at 11:02 AM

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My Bio

Lauren Yarger is Executive Director/Producer with Masterwork Productions, Inc. She has written, directed and produced numerous shows and special events for both secular and Christian audiences. She co-wrote a Christian musical version of “A Christmas Carol” which played to sold-out audiences of over 3,000 in Vermont and was awarded the 2000 Vermont Bessie (theater and film awards) for “People’s Choice for Theatre.” She also has written two other dinner theaters, sketches for church services and devotions for Christian artists.

Yarger trained for three years in the Broadway League’s Producer Development Program, completed the Commercial Theater Institute's Producing Three-Day Training and produced a one-woman musical about Mary Magdalene that toured nationally and closed with an off-Broadway run.

In 2008 she was a Fellow at the National Critics Institute at the O'Neill Theater Center in Waterford, CT. She writes reviews of Broadway and off-Broadway theater with a Christian perspective for Masterwork Productions (http://reflectionsinthelight.blogspot.com/) and is Connecticut theater editor for CurtainUp http://www.curtainup.com/, a national theater web site based in New York and editor of The Connecticut Arts Connection, an online source for news and reviews (http://ctarts.blogspot.com/).

She also worked in arts management for The Bushnell Center for the Performing Arts in Hartford and for the Hartford Symphony Orchestra.

Yarger writes news and inspiration for Christian artists at http://christianpeformers.blogspot.com/ and teaches theater workshops at conferences around the country.

She is a freelance writer and member of The Drama Desk, The Outer Critics Circle, The American Theater Critics Association, the Society of Professional Journalists, the CT Press Club, the National Book Critics Circle, the Connecticut SPJ, the Connecticut Critics Circle and Christians in Theatre Arts.

A former newspaper editor and graduate of the University of Missouri’s School of Journalism, Yarger lives with her husband in West Granby, CT. They have two adult children.

Copyright

All material is copyright 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012 by Lauren Yarger. Reviews and articles may not be reprinted without permission. Contact reflectionsinthelight@gmail.com

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Key to Content Notes:

God's name taken in vain -- means God or Jesus is used in dialogue without speaking directly to or about them.
Language -- means some curse words are used. "Minor" usually means the words are not too strong or that it only occurs once or twice throughout the show.
Strong Language -- means some of the more heavy duty curse words are used.
Nudity -- means a man or woman's backside, a man's lower front or a woman's front are revealed.
Scantily clad -- means actors' private areas are technically covered, but I can see a lot of them.
Sexual Language -- means the dialogue contains sexually explicit language but there's no action.
Sexual Activity -- means a man and woman are performing sexual acts.
Adultery -- Means a married man or woman is involved sexually with someone besides their spouse. If this is depicted with sexual acts on stage, the list would include "sexual activity" as well.
Sex Outside of Marriage -- means a man and woman are involved sexually without being married. If this is depicted sexually on stage, the list would include "sexual activity" as well.
Homosexuality -- means this is in the show, but not physically depicted.
Homosexual activity -- means two persons of the same sex are embracing/kissing. If they do more than that, the list would include "sexual activity" as well.
Cross Dresser -- Means someone is dressing as the opposite sex. If they do more than that on stage the listing would include the corresponding "sexual activity" and/or "homosexual activity" as well.
Cross Gender -- A man is playing a female part or a woman is playing a man's part.
Suggestive Dancing -- means dancing contains sexually suggestive moves.

Other content matters such as torture, suicide or rape will be noted, with details revealed only as necessary in the review itself.

The term "throughout" added to any of the above means it happens many times throughout the show.

Our Reviewing Policy

Our reviewer Lauren Yarger receives free tickets to Broadway and Off-Broadway shows made available to all voting members of the Outer Critics Circle and The Drama Desk, the two professional critics organizations with journalists covering NY theater. Journalistically, she provides an unbiased review and is under no obligation to make positive statements. Sometimes shows do not make tickets available to reviewers. If these are shows our readers want to know about (we review all Broadway shows and pertinent Off-Broadway shows), Masterworks purchases a ticket.

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