The savviness of the Irish Classical Theatre paired with Nobel Prize-winning playwright Harold Pinter guarantees a quaint departure from traditional theatre.
"The Birthday Party," directed by Greg Natale, is a theater production about middle-aged Stanley Webber (Todd Benzin) who is affectionately described by Lulu (Leah Russo) as "a bit of a washout." Stanley is staying at a boarding house by the ocean owned by the elderly couple Meg and Petey (Josephine Hogan, Gerry Maher).
These uncanny roommates go about their daily business, which involves Meg asking Petey if his "cornflakes are nice," to which he always replies, "oh, very nice."
The seating affectionately envelops the stage, creating a personal environment that draws the audience nearer to the player's dysfunctional antics. Apparently Stanley has been staying with the couple for quite some time in an attempt to avoid his somewhat clouded past.
Pinter's punctured writing causes every character to remain underdeveloped, but his spiky humor relieves him from the burden of a cheesy mystery. He constructs a simple yet surreal environment, and similar to Edward Albee's "The American Dream," his actors babble like infants.
The play takes place on Stanley's birthday and the plot takes a perplexing twist when two men apparently from his past, Mr. Goldberg and Mr. McCann (Vincent O'Neill, Guy Wagner), surreptitiously show up at the boarding house.
Riveting plot aside, the ambience of the Irish Classical Theatre woos the viewer. The events seem to be taking place in the audience's lap.
ICT's Co-founder and Artistic Director Vincent O'Neill commented about the venue and how it affected the cast's performance.
"I think that because this setting is so intimate, (the performance) is much more palatable for the audience," O'Neill said.
Stanley smokes cigarettes during the play; the aroma and the clouds of smoke swarm the theatre, giving the play a more tactile presence. Additionally, when a window in the house is "opened," audience members can "feel" the ocean breeze as a fan is turned on somewhere off-stage.
This closeness is what made the play both exciting and challenging for the actors.
"You gotta be clear and focused on what you are doing," Wagner said.
"We felt we could take a lot of risks and chances on stage," Russo said.
One must take into account the room that Harold Pinter left open to interpretation. His stage directions are curt and unemotive, like Samuel Beckett's work.
"We had to invent our own relationships, and shows like this focus on these relationships," Benzin said.
"The Birthday Party" truly is a complex and spellbinding story that has everything anyone could want in a live performance: sex, scandal, alcohol and violence. The Irish Classical Theatre will be showing "The Birthday Party" on Thursday and Friday nights as well as twice on Saturdays and Sundays from now until Feb. 11.
The next play on the ICT menu is "Observe the Sons of Ulster Marching Towards the Somme." This modern Irish drama set in WWI primers on March 2 and plays through April 1.
