REVIEW: “A Moon for the Misbegotten” @ Schenectady Civic Playhouse

Review by J Hunter.

I understand the argument for community theater companies doing new plays versus old classics, especially given the area theater scene’s current inclination toward relevant, challenging (and, preferably, never-before-seen) content. There is also something intimidating about a venerable piece like Eugene O’Neill’s A Moon for the Misbegotten, both for the actors performing it and the audience experiencing it. But when you have a production of Moon that’s helmed by an O’Neill devotee like local actor/director Evan Jones, a line from another “classic” playwright, Arthur Miller, comes easily to mind: “Attention must be paid!”

The action takes place in and around the Prohibition-era front porch of irascible tenant-farmer Phil Hogan (Michael O’Farrell), who rules his rock-strewn Connecticut land with an iron fist and a vicious tongue. This management style has driven off two of his three sons, and the play opens with youngest son Mike (Joe Plock) about to make his escape with the help of his sister Josie (a transcendent Jennifer Van Iderstyne). It may be Phil’s farm, but it’s Josie’s strength (both physical and emotional) that makes things happen here. She also has a whip for a tongue – a weapon she freely lashes Phil with when he finds out Mike is gone and threatens to take out his anger on her.

Jennifer Van Iderstyne

But Phil and Josie aren’t just father and daughter; they’re a team. They automatically close ranks to befuddle and frustrate their outraged, Standard Oil-rich neighbor T. Steadman Harder (Marty O’Connor) when he attempts to complain about Hogan’s pigs fouling Harder’s beloved ice pond. Josie also assists Phil in various small-time scams he dreams up to make a little extra cash. But when Phil takes up an idea – voiced earlier by Mike – to swindle or blackmail Hogan’s friend/landlord/drinking buddy Jamie Tyrone (Patrick White), Josie refuses until it looks like Tyrone may sell the Hogan’s farm to Harder. Love and loyalty are put on a collision course, and the results are both shocking and harrowing.

Moon is all about chemistry, and Jamie & Josie’s chemistry (fueled by unrequited attraction for each other) is obvious from the jump, and their scene to start Act 2 is a multi-faceted acting lesson in the hands of White and Van Iderstyne. Love and attraction are powerful, but they run smack into Jamie & Josie’s respective personal & family histories, as well as the defenses they’ve both erected to keep the world from making their lives even worse. White has the ghosts haunting Tyrone flying in perfect formation as he “happily” drinks himself to death, while Van Iderstyne’s Josie starts out barefoot & tough as nails, but she wants to open herself up to the man she really loves in every way possible – which, of course, complicates Phil’s cunning plan.

Notices near the box-office warned the audience there would be an actor on stage working from a script. That actor was O’Farrell, who returns to the SCP stage after a gap of several decades. O’Neill’s a big meal to eat, so I was willing to “put up” with the script. However, having a script in your hand shouldn’t stop you from inhabiting your character, and O’Farrell simply abdicates the job, keeping his nose in his script as he spends most of his time sitting on a stump Stage Right. In a play where chemistry is king, O’Farrell’s Phil had zero chemistry with his only daughter and his only friend. O’Farrell may look the part of the cantankerous Irish immigrant, but that’s not nearly enough in any play, let alone a classic like Moon.

Patrick White and Jennifer Van Iderstyne

The real shame is that O’Farrell’s non-performance detracts from a production that is thoughtfully staged by Jones and perfectly framed by yet another stellar SCP stage design: everything looks barren and lifeless at Chez Hogan, from the rickety, patchwork construction of the farmhouse to the leafless birch trees at the back of the stage. Hope isn’t even suggested, let alone expected any time soon. Brian Starnes gives the same detail & care with sound design here that he did with Civic’s March production of August: Osage County. For Moon, Starnes perfectly mixes old Irish ballads with the banjo-intensive bluegrass that came from Irish immigrants “heading for the hills” and building families and traditions in the New World.

All in all, Schenectady Civic’s production of A Moon for The Misbegotten needs to be seen – not just for the wonderful, evocative work White and Van Iderstyne do (together and separately) throughout the night, but for the experience of seeing how one of the theater’s legendary works can still bring a smile to the face and a chill to your spine at almost the same time. Even in the exciting world of 21^st century theater, when it comes to a towering piece like Moon, attention must be paid!

through November 24