Review: In Tandem Illuminates Irish Heritage in LAMPS FOR MY FAMILY

This winter at Tenth Street Theatre more than 20 lamps brighten the In Tandem Theatre Stage and recall the three generation history of an Irish American family named Duddy. Milwaukee bred playwright and Marquette University graduate Michael Neville reprises his semi-autobiographical play Lamps for My Family, where each lamp on stage remembers a light that a person in his family read by in the Duddy homestead, and metaphorically symbolizes the light they gave to Jack's life growing up. A play originally developed because of Neville's commitment to new works through his Playwrights Studio Theater, Neville lives and works in Milwaukee, and at In Tandem a beloved hometown actor Mark Corkins embodies Jack Duddy, a psychiatrist returning from New York after his divorce to care for his elderly relatives.

After the process of care giving ends, Jack questions what to do next and remembers the memories from his childhood, revives them from a room in his old house where all his relatives at one time lived, sometimes up to 20 persons roaming around the three floors. Neville's play appreciates how families, despite all their mistakes, misgivings, and misguided advice grow an individual into an adult self regardless of how a maiden aunt, eccentric uncle or a sister who died too early forever mark a person's life for better or worse. Yet, every memory holds on tightly to tender moments in Jack's heart and mind.

Corkins gives voice, often a delightful Irish brogue, to all the characters in Lamps for My Family, essentially a monologue for one actor in the character of Jack Duddy. Jack relives caring for his mother, Terry, during her demise from Alzheimer's, and Rose Virginie, an aunt who lingered long past her prime. Jack's Irish heritage infuses the story with specific dialects and characters, or events, reminiscent of ethnic Milwaukee. Corkins inhabits each of these relatives with affection and warmth, despite their influence on Jack's life, as if Corkins really grew up in the Duddy family..

Perhaps Jack's only sister Kick, or Kathleen Ann, who became a lawyer and married a Jewish man from New York presents one very important and poignant interlude in Jack's life. She gifted Jack with an unlikely combination of Jewish and Irish that worked, even when living in Milwaukee. At the end of the play, Jack invites Kick to a spiritual dinner that might offer some necessary closure for Jack. Or perhaps Jack's Uncle Pat, and his girlfriend Denise D'Angelou, an Oneida-Objibwa Indian woman, who the family shunned and Uncle Pat lived with anyway, offered another diverse insight into Jack's upbringing. With more than 27 characters recalled within the two hour plus evening, from Scary Mary to bad boy Tyler Cameron Duddy, Corkins under astute Director Chris Flieller, who also doubled as Scenic Designer, allowed all these Duddy individuals to breathe on stage while still maintaining Jack's personality and perspective to permeate the story.

Imbedded within these unique glimmers from a past Duddy childhood, Lamps for My Family lights the way for the audience to recall how all families, misfits and mischief makers, the black sheeps and bad seeds, to be remembered fondly, with love attached. While the actual lamps on stage go black when a family member 'passes over,' which sometimes appears slightly contrived, the last scenes impart a spiritual presence to the production--- how the past can haunt and ultimately impact a person's future, his or her impending decisions. In this production equally humorous and heart wrenching, Corkins moves the audience to examine and reflect on their own family experiences, perhaps now transformed to memorable treasures, uncovering the darkness of any secrets or spotlighting significant successes.

What an inspiring evening dedicated to one family's hometown heritage that also attempts to reconcile one's personal past. While sitting in the theater and when leaving the production, a very recent memory of an uncle, aged 95, a Polish American who lived in his house 63 years and was married for 73 years, came to mind immediately. He 'passed over' several days before the play's opening in a home where he was kissed on the forehead and he kissed my cheek before his own very special light dimmed, and then grew dark, his lovable warmth now finally cold. On opening night, Neville's Lamps for My Family translated into a tribute to this very special uncle, a sublime performance by Mark Corkins and a remarkable production by In Tandem for not hiding their brilliant lights under the proverbial bushel. Please, illuminate Milwaukee lives and stages for years to come.

in Tandem presents Milwaukee playwright Michael Neville's Lamps for My Family at Tenth Street Theatre, 628 North Tenth Street. For information on In Tandem's upcoming fundraiser production of Jesus Christ Superstar, or tickets, please call: 414.271.1371 or wwwlintandemtheatre.org.

To post a comment, you must register and login.