View from the Green Room: Neither here nor there
Barry Comerford in Bone Music at Brewery Lane Theatre.
Heather Comerford’s short one-act play “Bone Music” captures the neverland experience of the Irish immigrant to the States in the fifties.
Tom Nealon’s set of dust-coloured parlour furniture covered with sheets captures the atmosphere of a life spent elsewhere that longed to be here. There’s a story to be told here.
Secrets behind sheets reveal their own histories and long time emigrant Joey O’Mahony from Carrick-on-Suir has a personal exorcism to perform.
He’s a blow-in now. His father took them off to America in the fifties to sign up for the American Dream. Work hard… get to the top… happy. Sadly, many discovered that hard work was no guarantee of success and that happiness was elusive.
He clutched his mother’s hand on the deck of “The Empress of Britain” and swore to this dad that he wouldn’t look back. Instead, he never stopped.
In a land where everywhere felt like no place, his mother never made a friend. His father didn’t make it easy and moved around.
He discovers letters his mother kept. Orders from Macey’s for Aran jumpers, who paid Mrs O'Mahony $12 for a jumper that they subsequently sold for 10 times that! And it was hard work. American Dream how are you?
Unfortunately there’s a gap in the writing as we jump four decades to find Joey selling newspapers and magazines in Grand Central Station. The hours were long and the reward was poor enough.
In a chance meeting, Rosie Sanchez stops to buy a magazine and Joey remembers what might have been. When the second shift doesn’t show up one Sunday, he closes the stall early and heads for his local, Ryan’s Irish Bar, where the usuals have gathered to see the Ed Sullivan Show – the most important show on American television where even Elvis and the Beatles appeared.
Ed’s had a cancellation and fortune favours the Clancy Brothers and Tommy Makem, who weave their magic for a full 20 minutes on coast to coast television. Memories cloud around him when the five singers belt out the ballads that remind of home and Joey decides that it’s time to return home.
This time there’ll be no looking back when he’s on the final voyage of the Empress of Britain because he’s home to stay in the only home he knows.
Seasoned and talented actor Barry Comerford carries Heather’s tale well and the 40-minute monologue is rock solid.
Director Tom Nealon fashions a fine production from this emigrant’s tale.
A short and emotional video of the Clancy Brothers and Tommy Makem’s “Rising of the Moon” rounds off Joe O’Mahony’s evening of hard recollection.
