A Night in November
Subject: Quicktake - "A Night In November" by Marie Jones
Date: Fri, Oct 13, 10:58 PM
Quicktake on A NIGHT IN NOVEMBER
The mystical art of the shannachie is alive and kicking at Jimmy Tingle's Off-Broadway in Davis Sq. Somerville through Thanksgiving. Award-winning actor Marty Maguire, using a one-man comedy written by Marie Jones, brings Kenneth Norman McAllister, a Belfast Protestant, and some forty of his countrymen--and women--to uproarious life. More than that, he and the author turn Kenneth's mid-life crisis into what could be taken for a religious conversion, from a thoughtless bigot into a bona fide Irishman, in a show which swoops from laughter to tears as a real story should.
Jones, whose "Stones in His Pockets" was an instant classic, starts this tale, once upon a time, on "A Night in November" when Kenneth begins to realize how hollow his lower-middle class existence as a dole-clerk has become when he takes his nicotine-fiend father-in-law to a crucial soccer match between Northern Ireland and the Republic, and is ashamed at how completely prejudiced the old hooligan is. His frustration mounts with his wife, his job, his social friends and the dismal political stalemate under which he lives. The comic absurdity of it all becomes maddening. There's no way out. But of course there is. Jones sends him on an impulse off to New York the next April to be close to the World Cup competition. The result is even more hilarious and ultimately uplifting. Like any good fable there's a chance McAllister might just live happier when he goes back to Belfast.
This energetic one-man show is perfectly suited for JTOB, which is set up cabaret style. The only set is a stack of boxes, red white and blue at first, representing McAllister's Unionist background. A suit coat, a red cardigan, and a football supporters T-shirt are Maguire's sole costume changes/props. The backdrop is an out-of-focus mural of soccer fans in the stands. Minimal lighting effects help change the scene, particularly for our man's inner monologues. Maguire first appeared in one of Marie Jones plays in Ireland in 1986 and this script could well have been written with this versatile actor in mind. He first presented "A Night in November" in L.A. , then at the 2002 Edinburgh Festival, followed by two soldout runs at the Tricycle in London, two runs in Dublin, and back to L.A. where it won two Ovation Awards in 2005. Recently Maguire appeared at the Edinburgh Festival in Jones latest play, "The Blind Fiddler."
Many impressive shows from the contemporary Irish theatre have been seen in Boston, and this comic jewel, directed by Tim Byron Owen, is up with the best of them. JTOB in Davis Sq. is easy to get to on the Red Line, there are dinner packages available, and the Burren just next door upstairs. Guinness and Harp are available at the refreshment stand as well. Shows start at 7:30 pm evenings, Sunday matinees at 3pm. Come early for the best seats and something before the show.
"A Night In November" by Marie Jones, Oct.11 - Nov. 26
at Jimmy Tingle's Off-Broadway
255 Elm St. Davis Sq, Somerville (866) 811-4111
JTOB
posted by will at 8:34 PM
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