MARY-ARRCHIE BLOG

“I have language at my disposal,” says a teenage version of playwright John Patrick Shanley in 1991’s “Beggars In the House of Plenty.” Considering he would go on to win an Oscar for his “Moonstruck” screenplay and a Pulitzer for his drama, “Doubt,” that would be an understatement, no?

Corralling his thoughts and words the way a cowboy lassos a calf, Shanley’s best work captures a sense of place and personality, a skill he turned on himself in this autobiographical and seriously surrealist look back at his childhood in the Bronx. An experiment in form, this emotionally messy and intriguing Mary-Arrchie production (directed by Kevin Christopher Fox) offers up a palpable sense of what life was like within the thundering walls of the Shanley home.

A Baby Boomer from a working class Irish Catholic family, he was the youngest in a household of mismatched allegiances and careless insults. The dialogue is plain-spoken subtext—an alternate universe where everyone talks with the knowledge of hindsight. The comedy is bruising, and the symbolism overt.”I’m the center of everything!” his sister announces on her wedding day, only to disappear from his life thereafter. Pop works in a slaughterhouse, forever clutching a weapon—a meat cleaver, a shotgun, a pipe from the boiler room. “I will never approve of you,” he says. “May ya never die until I kill ya.” From older brother Joey: “If you’re ever disrespectful to Ma and Pa, I’ll kill ya.” And: “I love beer. That’s the one thing I’ll always have. Cold beer.”

Sometimes the navel-gazing is a bit much, but the performances here are worth seeing, particularly Daniel Behrendt as Joey, a swaggering, unpredictable force who is charming and dicey and ultimately crushed by forces that Shanley (Carlo Lorenzo Garcia, tender and rough around the edges) was better equipped to escape. Mary Jo Bolduc plays Ma, and she has just the right flat accent and abrasiveness.

She also has the best line. A lonely, pyro, klepto, lying Shanley would like nothing more than some metaphorical mother’s milk. She informs him: “I gave you formula.” Ouch, in all the right ways.

Nina Metz, Chicago Tribune

Source: http://www.chicagotribune.com/features/arts/chi-fringe-0530may30,0,4807175.story

Raw, weird memory play features dazzling staging and excellent performances

Mary Arrchie Theatre always likes to challenge their audiences with gritty, in-your-face plays. John Patrick Shanley’s “Beggars In The House Of Plenty” sure qualifies as a challenging work. Billed as an autobiographical memory play depicting Shanley’s family, “Beggars” tackles the demons from his past as a surreal comedy filled with wit, insight together with confusing twists. I wonder why Shanley chose to mount this work? It is a raw, often vulgar and brutally honest work about an Irish-American family on the brink of destruction. Who would want to explore the painful memories of such a loveless and violent family? I have much trouble with Shanley’s treatment but not with Mary-Arrchie’s fine staging and the powerful acting by the entire ensemble. This is a strong, abstract show that will rock you to your bones as it both engages you and confuses you.

Johnny (Carlo Lorenzo Garcia) is a five year old child going on adulthood who has a violent father (Karl Potthoff) who loves working as a butcher in a slaughter house. Ma (Mary Jo Bolduc) is the wacky unloving mother. We witness events in the household through the eyes of 5 year old Johnny. There is Sheila’s marriage, the return of older brother Joey (Daniel Behrendt), the sailor who threatens Johnny with a beating if he disrespects Pop and the arrival of Sister Mary Kate (Laura Shatkus), the aunt. We hear the family dynamics in adult language as each try for lover and acceptance. This absurdist style produces many funny moments despite several long ranting speeches. There is no love in this family and Johnny doesn’t seem to have a place here.

The play then shifts years later when Johnny is now a young adult—he is a loser having been kicked out of everything from kindergarten to college. He starts fires, lies and fails at everything. Joey is even more of a loser but the two brothers have tender moments and terrifying fights. Johnny still sees Joey as his hero despite Joey’s self destruction. The last scenes take place in the basement of the family’s old house. The set becomes alight with a red glow that suggests hell and Pop emerges as a meat clever armed demon. He challenges Johnny and seeks out Joey for destruction. This scene is powerfully scary as it shifts into abstract illusion.

“Beggars” is a disturbing yet engrossing work that can be hard to follow with its non sequiturs and screwball comedy and it dark undertow. It is a brave rendition of the destruction of a family seen through the eyes of a gifted playwright. Carlo Lorenzo Garcia, Karl Potthoff and Daniel Behrendt anchor the excellent ensemble. This play will shake your world.

Recommended

Tom Williams

Source: http://chicagocritic.com/html/beggars_in_the_house_of_plenty.html

John Patrick Shanley channels Christopher Durang’s surreal, bizarrely comic style in a 1991 autobiographical play spanning multiple decades in the lives of “Johnny” and his family. The first scene, set in the 1950s, ricochets between humor and sadness, even terror, as Johnny’s butcher father arrives home in bloodstained clothes and occasionally brandishes his cleaver. Pop could seem a homicidal monster throughout, but director Kevin Christopher Fox treats him more as a buffoon in the first two of three scenes, heightening the surreality. The apocalyptic final scene, set in the hellish confines of the family basement, raises the stakes to operatic levels at the same time it trivializes the family relationships with psycho-drivel. At the eye of this overwrought storm are Karl Potthoff and Mary Jo Bolduc, monolithic and impenetrable as the parents.

–Laura Molzahn

Source: Chicago Reader

The Non-Equity Jeff Award nominations were announced today and we would like to congratulate Mary-Arrchie’s producing director, Hans Fleischmann, on his best supporting actor nomination. We would also like to congratulate Ron Wells, on his nomination in the same category for his work on Mary-Arrchie’s production of A Prayer for My Daughter.

For full  list of nominees, please visit: www.jeffawards.org

OPENING MAY 25TH 2008! MARY-ARRCHIE THEATRE CO PRESENTS
THE CHICAGO PREMIERE PRODUCTION of JOHN PATRICK SHANLEY’S BEGGARS IN THE HOUSE OF PLENTY

In this deeply autobiographical work, Tony and Pulitzer Prize Winner John Patrick Shanley tackles his past. A surreal comedy, packed with the wit, insight, confusion, laughter and pain that only family can bring. At once vulgar, poetic and brutally honest, Johnny leads us on a journey through his childhood in the Bronx of the mid-1950’s to the turbulent late 60’s and finally the perspective of his adulthood.

“…Painfully funny…a memory play that is like Eugene O’Neill as seen through the eyes of a Tennessee Williams influenced by Eugene Ionesco.” -NY Post.

“…funny and profoundly painful at the same time…a play to be seen more than once.” -Chelsea Journal.

• Show Dates:
  May 25th, 2008 - June 29th, 2008
• Thurs.-Sat. @ 8:00PM
  Sundays @ 7:00PM
• OPENING NIGHT - MAY 25th at 8:00PM
• PREVIEWS:
  MAY 20, 21 & MAY 23, 24 at 8PM.
  Preview Tickets only $10!
• Tickets are $18-22
  Student, Senior, & Group Discounts available.
• Call 773.871.0442 for Reservations and Information
• 
  *Purchase Tickets Online