[Fredslist] "A Behanding in Spokane" @ the Gerald Schoenfeld Theatre - a review

[BOB SCHIFFMANN]

“A Behanding in Spokane” by Martin McDonagh

 

The plays of Martin McDonough, the English-born Irish playwright whose 40th birthday is this month, are an acquired taste. Not everyone in the audience seems to be happy at his plays, as witnessed by audience members leaving partway through.

Perhaps it's because his plays, while wildly funny, also contain violence and frequently body parts strewn around the stage and sometimes lots of blood. However, the violence is implied rather than graphic as one sees in Sam Shepard’s plays, and, somehow, the body parts and blood are often very funny. As I write this I wonder to myself how can we all be laughing at these things, and yet we were.

His first six plays are located in and around County Galway in Ireland and include "The Beauty Queen of Leenane" "The Lonesome West", "The Cripple of Innishmaan", and the “Lieutenant of Inishmore”. His new play: “A Behanding in Spokane" is located in a seedy hotel somewhere in the United States.

 

It's this latter play that I saw yesterday and enjoyed immensely, although I can understand why many would find it offensive. There are only four actors and all are perfect in their roles. Christopher Walken, who is the character missing his left hand, is a psychopath and very strange dude indeed, and is ideal with his strange mixture of humor and scariness. It seems that, 47 years prior to display, Walken lost his left hand in a violent incident involving some hillbillies, and has been searching for the missing appendage ever since. Two of the other characters are small time con artists who try to pass off a hand stolen from a museum as Walken’s. The fourth character is the receptionist at the hotel, played with an amazing understated humor and weirdness by Sam Rockwell.

 

The play moves quickly through it's intermissionless 90 minutes and keeps the audience laughing almost continuously, although my own reaction was somewhat more intermittent, but I did laugh. I'm a great fan of McDonagh's plays and was happy to see it listed on TDF. So, be forewarned, if you want to see some very good acting and laugh a lot and are sure that you won't be offended, I urge you to see this play at the Gerald Schoenfeld Theatre.

 

BOB SCHIFFMANN

microwaves at juno.com

 

1-212-362-7021
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