Continued Life
By Shaun Bennet Wilson
Beyond the Pale
By Barbara Hammond
St. Peter's Rectory
346 W. 20th St.
(closed)
Soon after I arrived at Barbara Hammond's
new play Beyond the Pale at St. Peter's Rectory in Chelsea,
part of the First Irish 2009 Theatre Festival in NY, I realized
that I had been led astray. This was not a play. This was one
of those dreams that feels like a film or a palpably familiar
trip to a place you've never been. This was an invited invasion
into the lives of others. This was, quite simply, an experience.
The journey began in an Irish Manor house in Northern Ireland
and began in the back garden. We, the audience, found our places
among the walkways and shrubs as the action began and moved with
the cast through the first floor of the church rectory throughout
the evening. We were no longer audience members, but a fog moving
through the countryside of Ireland, gently oppressing the manor's
inhabitants. In what I feel is a stroke of genius, the audience's
close proximity to the cast mirrored the railing against a silent
heaven that dwelt in the play. The three main characters, Siobhan,
Terry, and Declan, seemed as if they were trying to escape from
or engage with some invisible force that hemmed them in, watched
them, and never spoke. This convention left no room for the actors
to be false or distracted, or for the dialogue to be tricked up
and stiff, as we were no less than three feet away from them at
all times. A beautiful whisper of a play, simple and true. It
bloody well deserves a continued life.
