Review of: After Luke and When I was God

Sons and their fathers - the endless conflagrations that this dynamic creates. So it is with the Irish Repertory Theatre's After Luke and When I Was God that we get to see yet more dysfunctional relationships that dear old Da has wrought.

After Luke, as in the saint, the story of the prodigal son gets a slight adjustment. The anxious younger son of Dadda wants out of the crumbling and sorry Cork County and find fame and fortune in London. What he finds upon arriving there is a mind-numbing job that leads him to drunken weekends and a rut that gets deeper and deeper. The older stay-at-home, complacent son, aptly called Son, enjoys fixing cars, talking to his chickens and taking Dadda wherever he needs to go which is usually the bingo parlor. Son does not miss his brother, Maneen, in the slightest as their fights and squabbles usually ended with Maneen getting his own way. When Maneen makes a surprise visit other than his expected Christmas showing, Son knows something is up. And indeed in the ten years of Maneen's absence, Cork has become gentrified and the family farm is worth a fortune. The fight that follows is not dissimilar to the ones they suffered through childhood, Dadda usually taking Maneen's side in everything but ultimately always stepping away in indecision. The brothers assure us that they love each other, but because of Dadda's poor parenting skills we know otherwise. There is also a secret that tips the scales, but in whose favor is yet to be determined as the lights fade.

Was there ever a time in your life when you felt you could do no wrong even if it was for a short-lived period? Perhaps you felt a little like God. Dino and his father have both had times like that - Dino's father while he played the sport of curling and Dino for paddle-ball, after curling failed him and created a rift with his Da. When I Was God shows us the heights and depths a father and son experience when the father pins all his hopes and dreams on the younger image of himself. Do the two suffer for it? You bet, but it is for our delight as we come to realize through them that fate and one's will can work in tandem for a happy ending.

The playwright of the above two one-acts is Conal Creedon and except for both works being just a tad too long, Mr. Creedon knows whereof he writes and does it with a good deal of humor. The more dramatic After Luke has subterranean heartbreak surfacing in surprising places giving the piece much more weight than its partner but When I Was God has a beguiling style and lots of laughs.

Ably directed by Tim Ruddy, whose Sound Designer, Shannon Slaton, works small wonders, the cast is displayed as a very capable trio. The tentativeness and where-do-I go-next of Colin Lane's performance as Dadda suits the character perfectly. Michael
Mellamphy attacks both Maneen and Dino with force and charm if occasionally a bit too much so. Gary Greeg as Son and Dino's father brings such conviction to the outbursts of both roles that it's clear to us how different two persons' outbursts can be. All three men play off each other to perfection.

This will assuredly not be the last we hear how fathers and sons inescapably cross paths for better or worse. I'm anxious to see what else Mr. Creedon aims his eye on in furture.

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