A Touch of the Poet – Domestic Tragedy
Completed in 1942, but not performed until 1958, A Touch of the Poet was the third in a famously unfinished cycle of nine plays entitled A Tale of Possessors Self-Dispossessed. Producing O’Neill is like scaling a glass mountain. Plays are long, extremely fraught, and often peopled by unsympathetic protagonists. Risk of scenery chewing is high. The omnipresent principal character (and actor) here is challenged with holding narrative together even when (rarely) off stage.
Kate Forbes as Nora
Cornelius “Con” Melody (Robert Cuccioli) is proud, hedonistic, bullying, narcissistic, and a mean alcoholic convinced he embodies classic masculine ideal and entitled gentry. He liberally quotes Byron (often in front of a mirror) in whom he sees his own misunderstood grandeur. Con’s is the kind of charisma we ordinarily either love to hate or with whom we feel pain. O’Neill further requires any actor in the part to render quixotic, quick changes in temper and expression. None of this is well manifest by Cuccioli who fares better with later, Shakespearean pronouncement.
1828. Having been drummed out of what was a shining military career for engaging in an adulterous affair with the wrong woman, Con immigrated to Massachusetts with long suffering, devoted wife Nora (the terrific Kate Forbes) and their daughter Sara (Belle Aykroyd, not ready for a role of this size and nuance). He was summarily tricked into buying an inn misrepresented as being situated on a new coach line, adding yet another resentment to the pile of tinder carried on his shoulder.
Andy Murray as Jamie Cregan, Robert Cuccoili as Con
Con maintains a thoroughbred horse (for image sake) who eats before the family. As the innkeeper considers himself a gentleman, he’s against Andrew Jackson and the formation of the democratic party which alienates him from the community. In fact, those who patronize the bar are most often freeloaders disparaging its owner behind his back. The Melodys are over their heads in debt. It’s left to mother and daughter to plead with local shopkeepers.
Despite being insulted at every turn Nora remains deeply in love with her husband enabling his delusions. Of a lower class, this is in part because she sees him as “better.” Sara, equally maligned, has no such misconception. She’s angry and sarcastic on her mother’s behalf and her own, breaking into common Irish brogue when she wants to get Con’s back up. It never fails.
Mary McCann as Mrs. Hartford, Belle Aykroyd as Sara
The young woman has placed all her hopes on neighbor Simon Hartford, whom she found ill outside his cabin and brought home to tend. Despite idealistic pretensions to independence, Hartford comes from the kind of fine family Sara knows will socially raise her up. As he recuperates, the two fall in love. She intends to marry him come what may. Simon’s family has no intention of letting it happen. To that end, the inn is visited first by curious, proper Mrs. Hartford (a believable, genteel Mary McCann) and subsequently by a lawyer (solid portrayal by John C. Vennema). Con mistakes both visitors, complicates any liaison, then grows drunkenly violent. The play’s unexpected, final twist leaves things unresolved.
Director Ciaran O’Reilly gives us a cast of capable secondary players and realistic movement/stage business. Aykroyd as noted is miscast. Cuccioli doesn’t offer necessary range.
Also featuring good work by Andy Murray as the rambunctious toadying Jamie Cregan.
Charlie Corcoran’s marvelously detailed set makes us feel like flies on a wall. Costumes by Alejo Vietti and Gail Baldoni fit time, place, and class.
Photos by Carol Rosegg
Opening: Robert Cuccioli as Con
Irish Repertory Theatre presents
A Touch of the Poet by Eugene O’Neill
Directed by Ciaran O’Reilly
Through April 17, 2022
Irish Repertory Theatre
132 West 22nd Street
