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Culture Theatre

A Moon For The Misbegotten

A MOON FOR THE MISBEGOTTEN by Eugene O’Neill (Shaw). Court House Theatre, Niagara-on-the-Lake. To October 9. See listing. Rating: NNNN


Courting by moonlight is an often used dramatic device – think of the balcony scene in Romeo And Juliet and dozens of other scenes. But there’s such emotional and verbal richness in Eugene O’Neill’s A Moon For The Misbegotten that you won’t feel like you’re watching a familiar tale.[rssbreak]

The play is set in 1923 on the farm of Phil Hogan (Jim Mezon), a roguish Irishman who’s a tyrant to most neighbours only his daughter Josie (Jenny Young) stands up to him. Phil rents the land from the educated, hard-drinking James Tyrone Jr. (David Jansen), who in jest suggests he’s going to sell the land and throw Phil off it. To counter, Phil plots a set-up romance between Josie and James that’ll ensure he doesn’t lose his home.

In less skilful hands, the three-hour show might lose its energy as well as audience interest. But director Joseph Ziegler and a fine cast capture the work’s subtleties, the heartache as well as the laughter, and the central characters’ delight in language.

The play rests on the shoulders of Josie, known for her scandalous sexual adventures, and James, who spouts Latin and has a reputation with the women. From the first, Young uses Josie’s anger and self-deprecation to mask a shyness, warmth and longing she won’t reveal to others. Jansen nails James’s quick mood changes, his flirtatiousness and melancholy as well as the protectiveness he feels for Josie.

The heart of the play is their night-long emotional dance, a complex, bittersweet wooing that relies on the powerful, poetic text to sustain the pair’s forward and backward movements. Theirs is surely one of the most unusual love scenes in 20th-century theatre. Each eventually reveals hidden truths that mingle rage, gentleness and forgiveness.

The two get fine support from Mezon’s jovial, conniving father who enjoys trading insults with his landlord as much as he delights in playing the roaring paterfamilias, intimidating those around him.

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