Dan Myers
Would-be con artists: Marilyn (Carrie Sweet) and Toby (Jalen Thomas).
Playwright Martin McDonagh is great at telling scary stories. The Irish playwright’s works — including The Beauty Queen of Leenane, The Pillowman and The Cripple of Inishmaan — are filled with dark tales of lurking depravity. There are monsters, real and imagined. There is sudden violence, horror and an uneasy sense of foreboding. There are things too terrible to think about, happening to people you recognize, people you may know. Madison Theatre Guild’s production of A Behanding in Spokane is classic McDonagh: strange circumstances, off-kilter characters and the pervasive sense that something terrible is about to happen.
This play (running through Sept. 24 on the Evjue stage in the Bartell Theatre) begins with a shady business transaction in a seedy hotel. Two amateur criminals (weed-dealing sweethearts Marilyn and Toby, played by Carrie Sweet and Jalen Thomas) claim they have a hand for sale. This is good news for Carmichael (Patrick O’Hara), a man who has been looking for his missing left hand for 27 years. But when the would-be con artists fail to produce the goods, they are forced to hear the grisly tale of how Carmichael was separated from his body part and began his mission of revenge. Handcuffed to the radiator, the bickering and none-too-bright Marilyn and Toby plot an escape while Carmichael leaves to search the couple’s house for a hand that might be a perfect fit.
In addition to this bizarre trio, Mervyn the front desk receptionist (Sean Langenecker) is on the lookout for suspicious behavior, opportunities to prove his bravery and an antidote to the monotony of working nights in a decidedly dead-end job.
The ensuing 90 minutes is a strange mix of tension, boredom, macabre props, petty fights, daydreams about primates, jokes about racism and clues indicating that we are all much more connected than we know. Many of the misfires are due to the uneven script, while others are the result of an inconsistent approach to the characters.
As Carmichael, the tortured soul with the maimed body, O’Hara portrays a truly frightening man whose calm exterior hides hate that has simmered for decades. It is easy to believe his pain and humiliation have transformed him into a psychopath, until he accidentally sheds that façade, in an impressive turn by the actor late in the play.
As Toby, Jalen Thomas shows a nice range as he tries to fast-talk his way out of trouble, bursting into tears when he’s nervous and reaching out to comfort his captor’s mother when she calls the hotel room in distress.
The rest of the cast would garner more gasps and more laughs in this black comedy by playing their characters straight instead of going over the top and mugging for the audience.
A Behanding in Spokane, directed by Betty Diamond, is a strange, often disturbing, and frequently entertaining look at characters making bad decisions as a result of their own pain, ignorance and desperation.
