Word Made Flesh

by David Anthony Fox

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Published: Oct 4, 2006

Now here's a stage adaptation by Simon Bent and, from the use of the title, I imagine Irving doesn't object. Indeed, Bent has captured far better than I thought possible the novel's sensibility and sprawl. Some subplots are trimmed, but much of Irving's style is here, including the novel's famous opening lines by narrator John Wheelwright: "I am doomed to remember a boy with a wrecked voice — not because of his voice, or because he was the smallest person I ever knew, or even because he was the instrument of my mother's death, but because he is the reason I believe in God; I am a Christian because of Owen Meany."

As in the novel, there's a set of interlocking narratives. One traces the story of two boys growing up. John is Owen's best friend; Owen himself believes he's God's instrument on earth. A parallel plotline follows the growing horror of Vietnam. Owen Meany is replete with the elegiac lyricism that Irving's fans adore. Yet as much as Bent tries (and as well as the show is executed), this Owen Meany never quite achieves liftoff. Some of it has to do with the impossibility of depicting the title character, that small boy with the wrecked voice. Owen is raunchy and raucous, yet possessed of a Christ-like aura. It's not just that he can't be portrayed onstage — we don't want him to be. Part of Irving's cleverness is that readers can create their own Owens. Doug Hara is a superb actor, but even his considerable technique can only gesture at the sublimely weird Owen, rather than embody him.

For the rest, Ian Merrill Peakes is marvelous and heartbreakingly simple as John; the supporting actors are all good, with especially fine work from Maureen Torsney-Weir and Anthony Lawton. Terrence Nolen's handsome, spare staging follows the tradition for American oratory dramas like Spoon River Anthology. Elegant to look at, it also underscores the literary (as opposed to theatrical) nature of the story. The final scene, though, is breathtaking.

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