A stageful of stereotype-defying Irish islanders, an abundance of well-earned laughs and maybe even a tear or two thrown in for good measure are just a few of the reasons Martin McDonagh’s The Cripple Of Inishmaan at Antaeus Theatre Company adds up to one supremely satisfying (and pardon my Irish) fecking entertaining evening of L.A. theater.

Partner-cast duo Ian Littleworth and Matthew Grondin share the titular lead role of seventeen-year-old Billy Claven, aka “Cripple Billy,” orphaned in infancy and raised by a pair of maiden aunts (Julia Fletcher and Mary-Pat Green as level-headed Eileen Osborne and Rhonda Aldrich and Kitty Swink as her flighty sister Kate) who love their physically handicapped nephew to death even as they fret over the likelihood of his ever even getting kissed, that is unless it was by “a blind girl or a backwards girl or Jim Finnegan’s daughter who’d kiss anything.”

Then comes the day that crusty town gossip Johnnypateenmike (Stephen Caffrey alternating with JD Cullum) arrives with his customary three items of news, the last of which is about to change Billy’s life in the most unexpected of ways.

American filmmaker Robert Flaherty has traveled from Hollywood to the Inishmaan-adjacent island of Inishmore to make a movie (the actual 1934 fictional documentary Man Of Aram) and there just might be parts in for teen spitfire Helen McCormick (Emily Goss, Abby Wilde),

her sweet but not so sharp brother Bartley (Sebastian Fernandez and Joey Millin), and maybe even Billy himself, that is if a letter from town physician Doctor McSharry (John Allee, Philip Proctor) that gives Billy just three months to live can convince local boatman Babbybobby Bennet (John Bobek, Seamus Dever) to let him tag along.

Completing McDonagh’s multifaceted cast of idiosyncratic Inishmaaners is Mammy (Anne Gee Byrd at all performances), Johnnypateenmike’s ninety-year-old mother, drowning the sorrows of a six-decade widowhood in spirits eagerly provided by a son whose hopes that drink will be the death of her have so far proven fruitless.

A lesser playwright than the three-time Olivier Award-winning McDonagh would have you laughing at the locals, and indeed there is much to amuse in Auntie Eileen’s surreptitious candy munching, Kate’s propensity for talking to stones (and Billy’s for staring at cows), Bartley’s obsession with “sweeties” and telescopes, and Helen’s salty tongue (“If I’m pretty enough to get clergymen groping me arse, it won’t be too hard wrapping film fellas round me fingers.”) And a running gag beginning “Ireland mustn’t be such a bad place if …” never fails to provoke a chuckle even if it does reveal quite an inferiority complex.

Still, what makes The Cripple Of Inishmaan something out of the ordinary is the humanity McDonagh gives each of his flawed but undeniably human cast of characters in a world in which joy and sorrow and kindness and cruelty go hand in hand.

Separate but equal may have been deemed unconstitutional, but it describes to perfection The Cripple Of Inishmaan’s two casts, the “Yalla-Mallows” (names listed first) and the “Fripple Frapples,” who rehearsed together under Steven Robman’s razor-sharp, sentimentality-free direction before being split into two ideally matched sets of actors, each of whom brings his or her own particular brand of brilliance to the roles they share, from Littleworth’s and Grondin’s captivating, heartbreaking pair of star turns in a role as physically challenging either will ever undertake to the featured performances that surround and support them.

Equally stunning is The Cripple Of Inishmaan’s all-star production design, beginning with John Iacovelli’s appropriately stark stone-walled set (scenic painting by Orlando de la Paz) and properties designer Erin Walley’s array of country shop paraphernalia, exquisitely lit by Kaitlyn Pietras and Jason H. Thompson, whose scene-setting projections deserve their own snaps as do Garry Lennon’s two sets of time-and-weather-worn costumes and Jeff Gardner’s atmospherically Irish sound design. (Kudos too to Bo Foxworth’s fight choreography and Lauren Lovett’s dialect coaching.)

Samantha Kofford is assistant director. Jessaica Shields is production stage manager and Jessica Osorio is assistant stage manager. Adam Meyer is production manager and technical director and Cuyler Perry is assistant technical director.

The residents of Inishmaan may seem a hard lot to love at first glance, but first impressions can be deceiving. Like Martin McDonagh’s The Cripple Of Inishmaan itself, they end up a hard lot to resist.

Kiki & David Gindler Performing Arts Center, 110 East Broadway, Glendale.
www.Antaeus.org

–Steven Stanley
January 24 and 25, 2019
Photos: Geoffrey Wade Photography

Tags: Los Angeles Theater Review, Martin McDonagh, The Antaeus Company