MARY-ARRCHIE BLOG

Beggars could very easily be precious or sink under the weight of its Freudian clichés, but in the hands of Shanley (better known as the author of the wildly divergent Moonstruck andDoubt) the material is both funny and, in its depiction of the family’s hopeless inability to connect, unexpectedly poignant.

The play proves a good match for Mary-Arrchie. The company’s macabre sensibility lends the wackiness an air of menace and keeps things from getting too airy or silly. John Wilson’s ingenious set (another Mary-Arrchie specialty) is a perfect metaphor for a disintegrating family: What starts as a living room and staircase is dismantled a bit with each scene transition until finally it’s little more than a wooden platform. At the center of all the mayhem is Garcia, who plays Johnny with an intriguing, Holden Caulfield–like air: by turns sharp, sullen and sensitive.