Brogue Wave

REVIEW: Inis Nua Theatre Co.'s Made in China

by K. Ross Hoffman

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Published: May 20, 2009

[ theater review ]

Tom Reing is a lover of language. The artistic director of Inis Nua Theatre Co. — Philly's newly established exponents of contemporary British Isles drama, Reing gives bilingual curtain speeches, and his company's Web site and promotional materials are structured around Irish vocabulary lessons. So he's well-suited to direct Dublin playwright Mark O'Rowe's Made in China, since the play's three characters are also men of words. O'Rowe's trio of underworld underlings — levelheaded, hard-bitten Hughie (Jered McLenigan), preening, boastful bully Kilby (Charlie DelMarcelle) and gee-whiz new recruit Paddy (Mike Dees) — offer up some deliciously pulpy and vulgar dialogue, spilling forth volleys of earthy wit in charming, sometimes Yoda-esque vernacular constructions, which Reing's capable cast take to with gusto.

These men aren't simply sharp-tongued Mametian slang-slingers; they take conspicuous pleasure in their linguistic precision and piquancy. There's a debate early on about whether the storm outside constitutes "monsoon," "drizzle" or "deluge," and an ongoing squabble over "trousers" versus "pants." There are offhand coinages, too — like Paddy's anxious appeal for Kilby not to get "mayhemic" — although the more dazzling displays of verbiage are generally in reference to dicks, defecation and sodomy.

But, at least ostensibly, these are also men of action. When not riffing about bodily functions, snack foods or their sartorial sophistication (two other things these characters find conspicuously pleasurable), their conversations turn to the gritty gangland goings-on of a rather baffling set of off-stage characters — an overweight rogue cop, a one-legged fortune-teller, a shadowy crime boss and their own involvement in these affairs, including but not limited to, plans, threats and obligations to break the legs of various parties. These scenarios — farcical as they often seem — are serious business: They form the dark, grimy backdrop for an unfolding saga of personal anguish, alienation, loyalties tested and betrayed, shattering revelations —the stuff of the drama at hand.

But something doesn't connect. As convincingly vivid, and legitimately troubled, as these characters may be as men, they're hard to swallow as actual gangsters. With their faux-kung fu dude-bro sparring and their ongoing preoccupation with their status within the organization (the goofily-named "Echelons"), they seem more like overgrown kids, playacting out fantasies inspired by the martial arts flicks they never seem to actually watch. When the scrapping does finally turn nonverbal, in an extended fight sequence whose credibility is strained less by the Adrienne theatre's intimacy than by belabored, melodramatic pacing — plus the fact that it involves a prosthetic leg — it just drives home a nagging cartoonishness which the play never quite manages to escape.

Made in China | Through May 24, $20, Inis Nua Theatre Co. at the Adrienne, 2030 Sansom St., 215-454-9776, inisnuatheatre.org

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