Sean Bell, Kate Mulgrew, Ayana Workman, Zach Appelman (Photo: Carol Rosegg)

The Beacon

By Deirdre Donovan

Nancy Harris' The Beacon, directed by Marc Atkinson Borrull, is not for the fainthearted. Part ghost story, part murder mystery, part domestic drama, this enigmatic work is altogether an emotional rollercoaster ride that is sure to leave you pondering where the truth lies.

All the action takes place on Colm McNally's minimalist set. We see a spacious living room with contemporary-styled furniture; an easel with a bright abstract painting at center stage; a huge windowpane downstage; and a trompe l'œil seaview that changes with each passing scene.

The story is hardly idyllic: Beiv (Kate Mulgrew), a renowned artist, has decamped from her suburban Dublin home to an isolated cottage on a stark island off the coast of West Cork. Her estranged adult son Colm (Zach Appelman), newly married to a flighty art student Bonnie (Ayana Workman), arrives unannounced from San Francisco at Beiv's seaside cottage, a reunion that rattles some skeletons in the family's closet. Beiv, long rumored to have killed her ex-husband, who disappeared at sea 10 years ago, has torn down the external walls in her seaside cottage and replaced them with clear windowpanes. Her renovation literally puts her in a "glass box," truly making an exhibition of herself to any passerby. Donal (Sean Bell), Colm's childhood friend and former lover, adds more complications to an already rocky situation by trying to respark his relationship with Colm. Worse, a true crime podcast on Beiv is surfacing in town, and local tongues are wagging.

Harris has structured her play in two acts, with nine interwoven scenes that allow us to trace the trajectory of each character from their entrance to denouement. Harris' quintet of characters are rich in detail. Although at first blush one might see Colm as the stereotypical Irish man who imbibes too much drink, he emerges, if not always sober, with something cogent to say about each situation at hand.

Kate Mulgrew, Zach Appelman (Photo: Carol Rosegg)

That doesn�t mean, however, that he has a clue as to what his mother's art is about. Consider the time that Beiv, yearning for some connection with her son, asks him what he sees in her art work. Colm, oblivious to his mother's emotional needs, insensitively replies: "Nothing. Splodges. I literally just see splodges."

In sharp contrast to Colm's inability to interpret art, his bride Bonnie is ready to see "so much more" in Beiv's art. Take the opening scene when she stands before Beiv's latest painting and sees "female rage" on display. Of course, Beiv, after taking Bonnie's assessment into account, decides to enlighten Bonnie about the real subject of her painting: "It's a blood orange."

It�s to Harris' credit that she can manage to deftly engage with a number of significant issues early on in her play—art and ambiguity, characters' conflicted sexuality, and mariticide--allowing her to tackle a far weightier subject for the remaining scenes: the mystery of human nature. Indeed, the playwright does a deep dive into the human psyche, and explores what is unknowable in each individual.

If psychological matters are at the play's core, language serves as its lynchpin. Whereas Harris' language clearly reveals her to be a contemporary playwright with her dialogue peppered with New Age terms like podcasts and cell phones, there's also lively discussions about old Irish traditions. Case in point: Colm is delighted that there will be "trad sessions" (traditional music) on the weekends at the town pub. Another foray into the Old Country is when Colm, Beiv, and Donal collectively try to explain to the non-Irish Bonnie just what a banshee is.

Harris' play premiered in Galway at the Druid Theatre in 2019, directed by Garry Hynes. In a country that has long celebrated male playwrights like Samuel Beckett, George Bernard Shaw, and Sean O'Casey, not to mention the more contemporary dramatists like Conor McPherson, Martin McDonagh and Brian Friel, Harris refreshingly stands out as a female playwright with a voice distinctly her own.

 

Kate Mulgrew (Photo: Carol Rosegg)

The acting is first-rate. As Colm, Appelman suitably has a cool chip-on-his-shoulder attitude throughout. Sean Bell aptly performs Donal, capturing the angst of a man who has been disillusioned by his dreams. Ayana Workman inhabits Bonnie, the only "outsider," with an ingratiating quality. David Mattar Merten's Ray is rightly oily as the journalist and podcast producer who somehow persuades Bonnie to let him enter Beiv's cottage and snoop around the place. As accomplished as the cast is, however, it's Mulgrew, as the notorious visual artist, who walks away with the show. She is most impressive during the scene when Colm asks her if the podcast bothers her, in which she airily dismisses it with her sangfroid intact.

The Beacon, as directed by Borrull, is a psychological thriller that may well hold you in its grip from the get-go. Indeed, Harris has penned a twisted Irish tale that reminds everybody that truth is ever open to interpretation.

The Beacon

Irish Repertory Theatre, 132 W 22^nd. St.

Running time: 2 hours, 30 minutes with intermission

Through November 24