Review: O'Halloran Double-Bill Brings Complex Emotions to the Surface at PROTOTYPE

A powerful double bill by Irish composer Emma O'Halloran, to libretti by playwright Mark O'Halloran, her uncle, deals with disappointment, connection and heartbreak--and what makes people tick. You know, "the usual."

Composer Emma O'Halloran turned to music as a way of exploring complicated emotions that she's observed through her studies of psychology and anthropology--though they didn't seem much more complicated than any of us have. In this pairing, she turned to two short plays by her uncle, Mark O'Halloran, and came up with solutions that are, well, the same but different.

On the surface, the two don't seem to have much in common, other than dealing with the disenfranchised: a woman in prison and a rent-boy with a regular client. (And, of course, they have the same librettist-composers and production team: director, Tom Creed; music director, Elaine Kelly; electronic sound design by Alex Dowling and sound design by Garth MacAleavey with the spare but just-right scenic design of Jim Findlay and costume design by Montana Levi Blanco.)

The writing styles of the two couldn't appear more different. MARY is loud and in your face--raucous and earthy; TRADE is more moderate and somewhat low-key--with a poignancy to the relationship of the two characters.

As vigorously performed by the wonderful NOVUS ensemble under Kelly, O'Halloran's score sounds just right for the people we're watching, with Mark O'Halloran's libretti adapted from his plays.

Though listed second in the title, MARY MOTORHEAD, a monodrama, comes first and is the more intense and dramatically memorable of the two. Sung and acted to the nth degree in a go-for-broke performance by Naomi Louisa O'Connell, there is an earthy, emotions-close-to-the-skin style to the singer that is, in a way, what we expect from Prototype. Like a tiger in a cage--she's actually in a cage, facing an 18-year jail sentence for murder--pacing and trying to claw her way out, through O'Halloran's sometimes screaming look at her inner world.

In the program notes, the composer talks about the year she spent thinking about what she was going to try to get across--"that, deep down, all we want in this life is to be seen and loved and accepted for who we are." I think she and her librettist have done that quite well.

Funny. Mary is quite an unappealing character in some ways, but she gets to us, through the varied vocal lines and dramatic persona of her music as much as through the text. We see her and, more importantly, hear her through O'Connell's startling, spectacularly animated performance that digs deep into the inner life--the secret history--of this woman.

She brilliantly gets down to the bones of this character and makes us understand that, even though we may not see ourselves acting in the way she has, we understand why she did it--and how she saw it as the only way she could react.

As for TRADE, story-wise, there's nothing particularly original about the basic tale of a sex-worker and his regular client meeting in a sparsely furnished hotel room for their usual, casual encounter.

It's a slow dance as they talk and sing before, well, getting down to business, though the boy, tenor Kyle Bielfield, seems more anxious to "take the money and run," while the client (veteran Broadway musical actor Marc Kudisch) would like it to be a bit more leisurely. There is a distinct contrast in styles, with Bielfield taking an almost-lovely operatic approach and Kudisch in a manly, more theatre-like tone.

The boy says he's in it strictly for the money and, early on, appears to want to "get his paycheck" and go home with some treat for his girlfriend. But there's something else going on here--a connection, a bond, as if they were old friends, lovers.

Even when the man asks the boy, seeming somewhat surprised, to strip down to his boxers--it feels like more than a slam-bam-thank-you transaction. (Perhaps it's because the boy is about the same age as the man's son--the son who doesn't appear to have greeted his da's coming out with the hoped-for attitude.)

In the end, it is, most assuredly, more than the interchange between a buyer and seller. And while it may not be a surprise (after the two-step that we've been listening to and watching), it feels genuine.

For the remaining performances of TRADE/MARY MOTORHEAD and the other works in the 2023 Prototype Festival, see the website.

To post a comment, you must register and login.