A Behanding in Spokane
Written by Martin McDonagh
Directed by Sarah Borer
at CIC Theater, 1422 W. Irving Park (map)
thru April 26 | tickets: $15 | more info
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Imbalanced meets unbalanced, but doesn’t quite find right balance
Chemically Imbalanced Comedy presents
A Behanding in Spokane
Review by Clint May
Famed Irish playwright Martin McDonagh’s A Behanding in Spokane made its Midwest debut at Profiles Theater in 2011. Critics were divided—our own Catey Sullivan could only muster 1.5 stars. Others extolled its creepiness, black humor and distillation of McDonaghian themes. Personally, I wasn’t as primed for its absurdity then, but three years later I actually find myself liking this more the second time around even without Profile’s Darrell Cox’s considerable gravity to hold it all together. Written as a play that explores American absurdity (it’s McDonagh’s first play set here) and billed as a “twisted story of love, hate, desperation and hope”, Behanding is actually an overt commentary on how those things become traps. Specifically, how we build them ourselves, how we fight against them, and how they ultimately define us until we find a way to break free.
Arriving in a world that’s just askew to our own, Carmichael (Jimmy Pennington) sits dejected in a fleabag motel in parts unknown. A rumbling and yelping in the closet is quickly dispatched with a gunshot. He has to use his right hand to fire as his left is conspicuously missing. Turns out, he’s here for a rendezvous with some corpse dealers with a lot of hands for sale (this is apparently a ‘thing’ in this twisted version of reality). For a mere five hundred dollars, a couple Marilyn (Elise Spoerlein) and Toby (John Thibodeaux) have agreed to sell Carmichael the hand he lost 27 years ago to some sick hillbillies and a train. All the while they will all have to contend with the intrusive receptionist Mervyn (Caleb Fullen), whose peculiarity seems to stem from some kind of Asperger’s Syndrome.
Given that this is a suspense ride, that’s about all the setup that should be given away. Behanding is a wicked show that doesn’t pay much mind to making sense and much more to the casual cruelties inflicted on one’s fellow man when backed into a corner. For Carmichael, his obsession and Norman Bates-y relationship with his mother (who makes some bizarre calls to the room) have turned him into a serial killer with an Old Testament sense of justice straight out of Cormac McCarthy. His hand belonged to him regardless of whether or not it will ever be useful again. True to the adage that first you own things and then they own you (and what do we ‘own’ more than our bodies?), his missing hand ensnares his every waking moment with focused insanity. Marilyn and Toby are trapped not just by Carmichael’s obsession but their own desperation and imbecility as well. Only oddball Mervyn seems to provide another philosophical option for the trio in the hotel room. Having seen firsthand (forgive the pun) what happens to the caged, he has made a certain kind of peace with the cruelty of the world and has developed an equally absurd (pragmatic?) sensibility to free himself.
Originally played by Christopher Walken on Broadway, it’s easy to see how that casting choice would define an air of otherworldly creepiness that Carmichael has to project to bolster some weaknesses in the script. It took me a while to adjust to CIC’s cast, which felt on average 10 years too young to inhabit the kind of world weariness Behanding requires. Still, Pennington does a capable job as a racist/homophobic backwards bumpkin-cum-killer, though he never quite breaches the threshold into surreality. Spoerlein and Thibodeaux have some sometimes funny cartoonish banter, digressing wryly into preposterous minutiae while larger problems loom. In his first role in Chicago, Fullen steals the show with a wholly committed performance to such an alienated character, even imparting some glimpses of humanity that makes him strangely likable when doing or saying nasty things.
Lacking some of McDonagh’s better known aspects that have made him a critical darling, Behanding may ultimately be viewed as a slight work in the repertoire. There’s a little too much repetition and over-explanation padding out the dialogue, but it’s still punctuated by his fantastic trademark noir and haunting wistfulness beneath an omnipresent threat of violence. Director Borer still has some work to do to fine tune all the elements (and Quinn’s set design could use a bit more fleabaggage and dimmer lighting) to push this closer to the darkness at its heart. A Behanding in Spokane still makes a pretty good entry point for those who are willing to get on McDonaugh’s demented amusement park ride.
Rating: ★★½
A Behanding in Spokane continues through April 26th at CIC Theater, 1422 W. Irving Park (map), with performances Fridays and Saturdays at 8pm. Tickets are $15, and are available by phone (773-865-7731) or online through BrownPaperTickets.com (check for half-price tickets at Goldstar.com). More information at CIComedy.com. (Running time: 90 minutes, no intermission)
artists
cast
Caleb Fullen (Mervyn), Jimmy Pennington (Carmichael), Elise Spoerlein (Marilyn), John Thibodeaux (Toby)
behind the scenes
Sarah Borer (director), Nick Quinn (set design), DJ Reed (costume design), Bruce Deviller (stage manager)
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