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We might as well start with the goose.
you could practicallysmellthe dopamine gushing through the theater.
Our brains, ourbodies, are being irrepressibly triggered and we love it.
That baby, that bunny, that goose!
And its Irishness which walks a knife-edge between robust authenticity and lyrical exaggeration starts to slip towards blarney.
Horrigan is the Carneys family priest.
The murder cant come back to the IRA.
Things will have to be forgotten, sacrifices made, in the greater cause of justice.
The young Carney girls sit rapt at her feet, treating her like a profane prophetess.
And wefeelall of it: This stuff, especially to certain sensibilities, is catnip.
I freely admit to being among the susceptible.
Mendes is at his best in the moment-to-moment work with these instinctive, powerful performers.
I wish that more of the significant scenes involvingThe Ferrymans women felt this alive.
Because in the future, we cannot be.
So kiss me, and then it is the future.
Where we are not.
Where we can never be.
I did …once.
The director is also more cinematic than theatrical in his handling ofThe Ferrymans dramatic flow.
But figure out your transitions.
Do we really buy former IRA loyalist Quinns gangster-movie patter with Muldoon (I told you I wanted out.
I told you why.
I said I had enough blood on my hands)?
After all, are we not entertained?
Theres a live goose, for Gods sake.
But …
That But.
No matter the delights and thrills of the play, and there are many, its always there.
How green isThe Ferrymans uncanny valley.
The Ferrymanis at the Jacobs Theatre through February 17.
