Bay City News
Sometimes, if you're a lover of literary fiction, you read something that speaks to you so personally and at the same time is so beautifully illuminating of the human condition that you feel uplifted. You're gratified to know the storyteller knows you so well, and you're somehow reassured you're part of the human family.
What's even more wonderful is to see that story onstage -- its very nuances, its tiniest observations, its humor, its delicacy -- all illuminated, alive and visceral, expanding beyond the word on the page to a realm that engages all your senses.
Such is the case in Word for Word's latest production of three short stories by acclaimed Irish writer Kevin Barry. As always in a Word show, the text is presented in its entirety, verbatim, with the "he saids" and "she saids" and so on. Also, as is usual in a Word production, the actors work in such perfect harmony (here under the sensitive direction of Paul Finocchiaro), in both the direct dialogue and the narrative voice, they're like a fine-tuned orchestra.
But rarely has Word picked such a trio of stand-alone stories that mesh so beautifully and so, well, Irishly, that they seem to encompass all the humor and tragedy and perversity of the human spirit.
In "The Coast of Leitrim," Seamus, a man so lonely and such an oddball that you don't know whether to trust him or not, develops a fixation on a pretty young Polish waitress who's equally lonely. The way that the two, played by Ryan Tasker and Monica Slater, reach out for each other is funny, sometimes cringeworthy, and endlessly involving.
In the second story of the trio, "The Wintersongs," a garrulous old lady on a train (Stephanie Hunt, funny, a little frightening, absolutely terrific) talks nonstop to her seatmate, a reluctant teenager (Ailbhe Doherty), whose own story, at the other end of the age spectrum, is revealed, touchingly, at the end.
And in "Who's-Dead McCarthy," the title character--John Flanagan as McCarthy, the gossipy town bearer of bad news, with Joel Mullennix as the narrator--is so obsessive, so serious, that the entire piece becomes an exquisite blend of hilarity and existential angst.
The three stories play out on a single set by designer Jeff Rowlings: a bridge over a river, with the stories' various locales represented by a series of images projected on the upstage wall. The images are so effective that the constant moving in and out of furniture is unnecessary, and even distracting, but a minor glitch in such a well-devised presentation.
Especially enriching is Colm Riain's original music, which underscores the action in various places. Composed in a traditional Irish idiom, the music seems to enhance every mood, from the most melancholy to the most jubilant.
It doesn't matter if you read the stories before going to see "Who's-Dead McCarthy." I did, and I could only marvel at this company's gift for bringing the written word to life.
Z Space and Word for Word's "Who's-Dead McCarthy: Stories by Kevin Barry" continues through July 21 at Z Below, 470 Florida St., San Francisco. Tickets are $40 to $65 at zspace.org/barry.
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