Friday , March 29 2024
This one-man, multi-character show devolves into a shouting match.

Theater Review (NYC): Three Irish Widows Versus the Rest of the World

Ed Malone’s hyperkinetic shows have garnered glowing reviews in his native Ireland. But rather than the multiple character study suggested by the title of his current production—now playing in New York City at the Singers Forum through Aug. 26 and then moving to Stage Left Studio Theatre—we’re given a frightful shouting match.

In this autobiographical piece, Mr. Malone (or his younger self, anyway) seems angry at everyone. Neither his mother, his aunts, his dead male relatives, nor anyone else escapes his wrath, which remains, alas for the audience, unexplained. The sound and fury with which he embodies these unrelievedly ugly caricactures therefore fails to add up to a powerful performance. They are characters in search of character.

Most problematic, the three widows at the center of the story have few distinguishable traits aside from mockingly exaggerated physical cues. All “lived for their husbands” and “lived to cook.” Once widowed, all are randy and unlikeable. The husbands they lose (mostly to cancer, at which Mr. Malone is also extremely angry) are a bit more distinct, treating their wives differently (cruelly, obsequiously), but they’re all as insensitive and superficially drawn as their wives.

If this were funny, it all might be acceptable. Perhaps it’s a nationality thing, but aside from one or two slight chuckles, whatever humor the piece possesses doesn’t seem to translate. Or, if there were a focused story that offered a reason for all the yelling, the bitter tone might be compelling in a squirmy sort of way. But with no character development to delineate, all Mr. Malone can give us are disconnected episodes: the widows shop, travel, get haircuts, and experience a few international romantic adventures characterized mostly by bawdy sex. They’re like R. Crumb characters taken to the Nth degree of ugliness and stripped of pathos—presented to us, not warts and all, but just warts.

About Jon Sobel

Jon Sobel is Publisher and Executive Editor of Blogcritics as well as lead editor of the Culture & Society section. As a writer he contributes most often to Music, where he covers classical music (old and new) and other genres, and Culture, where he reviews NYC theater. Through Oren Hope Marketing and Copywriting at http://www.orenhope.com/ you can hire him to write or edit whatever marketing or journalistic materials your heart desires. Jon also writes the blog Park Odyssey at http://parkodyssey.blogspot.com/ where he is on a mission to visit every park in New York City. He has also been a part-time working musician, including as lead singer, songwriter, and bass player for Whisperado.

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