John Ruby, Andrew Connolly and Nick Tate. (Photo by Ed Krieger)

It is easy nowadays to forget the profound contributions made to American culture by Irish immigrants, but John Fazakerley’s “Corktown ‘57” may very well bring the Irish back to the forefront of the American stage. A clear student of O’Neill, Fazakerley’s play is on the brink of masterpiece.

The world premiere of the play is currently running at the Odyssey Theatre, and this first production holds a great deal of promise for the development of this play. “Corktown ‘57” follows the Keating family, a first generation Irish family torn apart by resentment living in a small town outside Philadelphia in a 95% Irish neighborhood in 1957. This is a very heated period in history for the Irish; the Irish republican Army (IRA) is in the midst of fighting the British for a united Ireland—one in which Northern Ireland is free from the U.K. and the island can be considered a single nation.

The patriarch of the family, Mike Keating (Nick Tate), is dying of cancer and must stay with his son, Frank (John Ruby), and his family. Tensions arise when Frank’s estranged brother, John (Andrew Connolly), a general in the British military, visits under the guise of meeting Frank for the first time in order to warn the Keating family of British Intelligence’s investigation into their affairs. His sister, Kaitlin, has been raising funds for the IRA in America, and John means to stop her before she is hunted down and persecuted by the British. However, Kaitlin and Mike’s hatred for John for his position in the British military and his sketchy past with the brutal police force, the Black and Tans, proves that such a task will not be easy.

The plot is certainly a complex one, with a great deal of moving parts, but Fazakerley manages to clearly communicate each one and make the layered fairly accessible to the audience. However, much of the play may go over the head of any audience member who doesn’t read the detailed historical notes in the program, which may present problems when trying to expand the play’s outreach and commerciality. It explores a fascinating aspect of Irish history while blending it into a very American setting, exploring what it means to immigrate to another country and exploring the process of cultural identification.

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Frank, who was young enough to have virtually no experience living in Ireland, has fully adapted to American life, and at times it seems he is thrown into the awkward position of being caught between two very different worlds. The play masterfully examines the blending of Irish and American culture and beautifully captures the inherent paradox of the Keating family; they are, at the same time, red-blooded Americans and unfailingly Irish.

The script has both its triumphs and its weaknesses. The most notable success is the flow of dialogue and scenes, and the play is very immersive and rarely fails to hold one’s attention. All of the characters are fascinating and very different, and they all seem to breathe by their own rhythm onstage. The writing also succeeds in finding the middle ground between economy of language and the great theme of O’Neill’s plays—a cyclic manner of speaking and acting where many characters, in their stubbornness, are revealed to be broken records. 

John Ruby, Natalie Britton, and Jonah Beres. (Photo by Ed Krieger)

The overall excellence of the writing is broken up by very small moments of arbitrary dialogue. There are a few scenes that end very nicely, and then the closure of the scene is interrupted by some random outburst, particularly by Frank, that has little relevance to the moment. Another problem is the number of tangential subplots. There’s a lot going on in this play. Aside from the main plot of John’s presence in Corktown, we see Frank and Janice (Natalie Britton)’s marriage failing due to having lost a child a number of months before the beginning of the play, infidelity between Kaitlin and her sister’s husband, Ciaran (Kevin P. Kearns), and the imminent destruction of Frank’s house due to the expansion of the University of Pennsylvania. All of these subplots are individually interesting, but they lack a unity in the drama and all seem to be happening of their own accord, without some sort of connected center. The play also wraps up far too easily and neatly for all of the problems presented in its onset, and the current conclusion of “Corktown ‘57” seems incredibly forced. The final issue that the playwright must address is a common pitfall of dramatic writing; the protagonist is the weakest, least interesting character in the play. Frank has very little to no involvement in the main plot, and keeps being overshadowed as supporting characters take the reigns. 

The acting ensemble is one of the production’s biggest strengths. Andrew Connolly delivers an imposing but sincere John, who is the clearly the pillar of strength in the family and yet has never received any gratitude for it. Nick Tate’s Mike stands as his firm opposition—an archetype of stubborn and damaging ignorance that threatens to unwind the fabric of the family. 

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All of the aspects of the design are very fitting and supportive of the play, except Cricket S. Myers’s sound design during scene changes, which has a repetitive and aggressive quality that often destroys flow from scene to scene and completely tramples over the audience’s ability to take in the conclusion of each scene as the play seems to be hurrying along to its finale.

“Corktown ‘57” could be, with just a bit of rewriting, a very important play and a quality contribution to the American canon. Its initial production at the Odyssey Theatre is quite successful at doing its job, for any new play needs a compelling first production to take off. John Fazakerley will likely have a bright career ahead of him, and his voice shines brightly and passionately in this great work.

"Corktown '57" is playing through May 3 at the Odyssey Theatre (2055 S. Sepulveda Blvd., Los Angeles). Tickets are $25-$30. For more information visit www.OdysseyTheatre.com.

Reach Staff Reporter Ryan David McRee here.

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