Review: This Lime Tree Bower

Gray Powell, Matthew Gorman and Anthony MacMahon (photo credit: Scott Gorman)

Giving the finger to what you have

by Jason Booker

The Toronto premiere of this early Conor McPherson work features actress Sarah Dodd in her directorial debut. The fact that Dodd comes from a thespian background clearly shines through since the performances she helped create are fantastic against the uninspired design elements. 

A compelling series of monologues, This Lime Tree Bower features three young Irishmen: Joe, the schoolboy who remains vulnerable and curious, Frank, his older brother who shelters his family and provides in the family’s chip shop, and Ray, the devil-may-care philosophy professor. These men will see things they never wanted to, lust after things they can’t have and give the finger to what they’ve got. Without consciously knowing it, the characters all seem to want but have no idea of where to go. And maybe that’s part of the problem of the show. Unlike Terminus (selling out at the Royal Alex, another monologue-based Irish show), This Lime Tree Bower is told in past tense, the tale never becomes immediate or urgent and doesn’t quite justify why these characters needed to be seen or heard by the audience. While the production contains strong performances – also heavily accented – nothing else in the production (and possibly even in the script) demands attention, especially at this moment in time.

Powell brings so much fire to the role that he nearly steals the show, which probably isn’t the intention of McPherson.

As Joe, Anthony MacMahon charmingly endears himself to the audience. He plays a soft young man who watches the woman he loves who lives down the street. He slyly becomes friends with the handsome new lad at school, who teaches him about guilt and tossing off responsibilities. MacMahon draws you into the story and then tells you to listen to the others as his plots fade into the background. He serves as a narrator and aptly takes on the role, finding the emotional core of Joe and really putting his dream of fitting in on the line. Tragically, what happens to Joe feels like it is supposed to be the heart of the piece but the tug of the last line doesn’t quite settle into its proper place before the show ends.

Grey Powell surprised this reviewer. After seeing him previously at the Shaw Festival, Powell emerged as Ray and lost the gentility Shaw has bred into him, quickly becoming a foul and rude, but utterly loveable rogue.  His teenaged zest for life made the part a joy to listen to, even though it so sharply contrasted the assumed staidness of a professor.  While disgusted at his attitudes and inconsiderate behaviour, it’s hard not to laugh at this entertaining rascal.  Powell brings so much fire to the role that he nearly steals the show, which probably isn’t the intention of McPherson.

Frank: the complicated simple brother, so much goes on around him in his family.  Yet Frank is the one person in the play trying to do something to change his existence.  Strangely, with Matthew Gorman’s performance, Frank transforms into the quietest person present; his story becomes the least interesting of the lot, though it contains the most action.  Well delivered, Gorman’s Frank feels like he still has a way to go before he can assume his proper place at the centre of the show.

Taking its title from a poem by Coleridge, the play should be about watching one’s friends having fun while feeling trapped in your own position in life.  The writing of the piece achieves that and the performances manage to make each of these men feel imprisoned while the others have a blast.  But the production itself also makes the audience feel a bit stuck.  

This Lime Tree Bower continues to December 22