Staging Billy

It's hard to be a liar and a believer at the same time.

Back from Round House Theatre's production of Charming Billy, adapted and directed by RHT's producing artistic director, Blake Robison, from Alice McDermott's novel. A gathering of family and friends pieces together the life and heartbreak of Billy Lynch (portrayed by David Whalen) during a post-funeral gathering at a New York-Irish bar.

The conversation opens on one end of the long banquet table, the side away from the grieving widow, focusing on how long Billy had been known to drink, each recollection taking us back farther into Billy's life and to the key episode where he first met "the Irish girl."

The flashback scenes glided in from the wings onto the front of the stage, upstaging the party scene but leaving them visible to represent the present. Another flashback begins at the bar behind the party table. In this way, memory surrounds the present, asserting its legitimate place at the table.

Billy was a drunk; should we have helped him? Could we have helped him? Was it a disease, or was he at fault? The answers aren't really there, though I kept hoping for them. It wasn't about Billy, but about our own heartbreaks and guilts.

And so I turn these questions inward. Throughout the play I thought about my charming mother and her battles with depression and alcohol. Unlike Billy, she died sober, because she'd been in rehab those last several months. In the end, she still wanted to die--she'd outlived her life--but at least she no longer wanted to kill herself. At least I don't think so.

Not much of a review, but that's my approach to art. I let it surround me and assert its legitimate place at my table.

Love, hosaa
charmed, but a little haunted