Feb. 06, 2008 - Issue #642: Hayden

We guilt this City: Shining city sorts emotional Baggage

 It probably shouldn’t come as a surprise that an Irish playwright wrote a play that largely deals with guilt: dope up any nation with that much religion—particularly Catholicism, for which guilt is practically a sacrament—and even the ones who don’t show up on Sunday are going to have a lot of issues to work through.

Still, even considering his background, Conor McPherson’s Shining City is particularly obsessed with the subject. Part ghost story—more metaphorically than literally, though at least one character actually reports seeing the spectre of his dead wife—part psychodrama, Shining City strip-mines the layers of the regretful mind, with the audience becoming richer for its exhaustive efforts.
 

That level of penetration is what initially struck Citadel Associate Artistic Director James MacDonald, the man charged with bringing McPherson’s play to the Rice stage.   
 

“What really struck me was how well he captured what it’s like to be a certain age,” MacDonald says. “He’s got a real insight into how people’s minds work as they age, and especially how the choices they make affect them. All these people have to deal with regrets, and guilt, and the baggage that comes along with living, and they do it in a very engaging, very human way: these are people who are funny, they’re sad—they’re very distinct, real characters.” 
 

That depth is decidedly necessary: the play is set in the Dublin offices of Ian (Shaun Smyth), a lapsed priest and current psychiatrist who has enough trouble healing himself, never mind the people who come in seeking the late 20th century’s preferred form of absolution. Over the course of the play, Ian not only has to deal with the aformentioned deceased widower (Tom Wood), but a deteriorating relationship with his girlfriend (Caroline Cave) and a broke, rough-around-the-edges new father (Jason Carnew). As Ian delves deeper into their problems, he comes to understand more of his own, patients helping doctor as much as the other way ‘round.  
 

Still, for MacDonald, the play isn’t so much about finding the solution as it is confronting the problem: McPherson doesn’t provide a lot of answers so much as implore you to go off and look for them yourself, because there are some horrible consequences if you don’t (something McPherson, a notoriously hard drinker, knows from experience).
 

“I think really that ultimately what he’s saying is that you have to deal with these things, and if you don’t, they’re going to consume you,” MacDonald says. “I’ve been sort of comparing it to defragmenting a hard drive: you’ve got all these circuits going in all these different directions, and if you don’t sort them out and get everything in order, eventually you’re just going to stop working.” V


Thu, Feb 7 - Sun, Feb 24 (7:30 pm)

Shining City

Directed by James MacDonald

Written by Conor McPherson

Starring Shaun Smyth, Tom Wood, 

Caroline Cave, Jason Carnew

Citadel Theatre (9828 - 101a Ave), $43 - $53



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