Review: REVIEW: A YANKEE GOES HOME at At Abbey Theater Of Dublin

When he first learned the Abbey Theater of Dublin was interested in doing the world premiere of A YANKEE GOES HOME, Irish American playwright Sean Cooney was thrilled to be doing a production in his homeland. Then Cooney learned the Abbey Theater was located off Emerald Parkway in Dublin, Ohio, not in the Capital City of the Emerald Isle.

However, after watching the production of his one-act play last weekend, Cooney appeared to be just as ecstatic and content ... without having the jet lag of a seven-hour flight to Ireland. After opening April 14, the show has its final three shows April 20-23 at the Abbey Theater (5600 Post Road in Dublin, Ohio)

"Traditionally, I have gravitated towards raising up local playwrights," director Joe Bishara said. "This is the first time since I came to the Abbey in October 2019 that I've done a full-scale production of world premiere play not written by a playwright with Central Ohio ties."

A YANKEE GOES HOME is an Irish exaggeration of several true events, according to Cooney, who regaled the audience with the events that lead to the creation of the play. They included a brief encounter with the late George Steinbrenner, an ex-girlfriend's grief after her father's suicide, and the New York City resident's love of the Yankees. All of those ingredients are swirled together in a cocktail of rejuvenation and reconciliation of a family.

Matthew Moore plays Flinter Flynn, a hard-boiled NYC policeman who has suffered a mental breakdown after his colleague Danny committed suicide by leaping from Flynn's roof.

When the audience first sees Flynn, they notice his symptoms - a shaking left hand, hallucinatory conversations with "George Baseball" and his delusion of shooting out the numbers of the scoreboard with his pellet gun to keep the Yankees from losing to the hated Boston Red Sox. What the theater goers don't see is his ability to communicate with his long-suffering wife Becky (Alyssa Ryan) or his millennial daughter Gracie (Grace Emmenegger-Conrad).

Both Becky and Gracie are trying to talk Flinter off the roof literally without much success. However, the only person Flinter can communicate with is the apparition of George Baseball (aka George Steinbrenner), masterfully performed by Robert Cooperman. George Baseball is kind of like the Yankees' version of the angel Clarence from the movie, IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE. He has an unorthodox style but he is able to get through to Flinter.

A YANKEE GOES HOME is like a good baseball team, with each actor bringing something special to his or her position. Moore walks that fine line between insanity and reality. Every once in a while, he gives us glimpses of the loving father and husband he used to be and longs to return to being.

Ryan doesn't relegate the role of Becky to the cliché of a long-suffering wife. She conveys a longing for the way her husband used to be, but she doesn't give up hope he will return there one day and celebrates the small steps he takes along that path.

On the other hand, Emmenegger-Conrad does a masterful job of being a pessimistic daughter who can't afford to dream her father will return to their family. She is so embarrassed by her father's outbursts and odd behavior that she will not allow her fiancé Sam (Charles Easley) meet her family. The fact that Sam is a Red Sox fan makes that decision even easier for Grace.

Jeff White's character Righty Mills views Flynn as a father figure and in a way, he's similar to Moore. Just as Flynn is despondent over the loss of his right hand man Danny, Mills is depressed over the loss of his physical right hand. He sees it as his mission to bring his old coach back to the real world.

Cooperman is the key to making the play work. He is the Frank Capra comic relief to what would be a very dark Arthur Miller-like play without him. Partially brash and self-confident with a twinge of humility, Cooperman does one thing that real life couldn't do - make Steinbrenner look like a hero.

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