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| Show | Did He Like It?* |
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A broad and bitter indictment of judicial abuse, inspired by the 1916 "Trial of the Century" of Sir Roger Casement leading to a conviction and hanging based on evidence possibly manufactured by the government in political retribution. New York premiere. Click here for tickets. |
A Court Full of Chaos, a Trial Crammed With Question
*By JASON ZINOMAN
Published: May 28, 2008
The 1916 trial of Sir Roger Casement had everything a dramatist could want: salacious revelations, media manipulation, star cameos (George Bernard Shaw and Arthur Conan Doyle were among those appealing for clemency), political intrigue and a central character wrapped in mystery.
Sir Roger (played here by Philip Goodwin) was an Irish patriot and former British diplomat who was arrested on charges of treason during World War I after returning from Germany, where he was seeking aid for the Irish independence movement. During the trial, in which he was convicted, the government released his diaries. Those revealed a homosexual private life and were circulated, as the courtroom drama “Prisoner of the Crown” suggests, in an effort to influence public opinion. “Was that really why they hanged Sir Roger?” a narrator asks leadingly early on.
His unnecessary topic sentence of a monologue gives you a worrisome hint that the playwright, Richard F. Stockton, doesn’t entirely know how to boil this wealth of material down to a play. Every time the plot becomes convoluted, the action freezes, and we have the situation explained to us by this breezy narrator. Stuffed with minor characters and historical asides, this frenetic play, performed by actors playing as many as seven roles each, has an anything-goes satirical style.
One moment, Ciaran O’Reilly’s production seems like “Twelve Angry Men,” while the next it brings to mind “The Invention of Love.” (A clunky legal dispute about a comma makes you wonder how Tom Stoppard would have pulled this off.) The jazzy music and the lights running down the columns of Charles Corcoran’s set summon up “Chicago,” which is only slightly more cynical about the legal system. There’s even a weird “Young Frankenstein” moment when a man in a white lab coat and hunchback enters for comic relief. (You have to see it to believe it.)
But mostly, the whole fascinating story is treated as historical cartoon. The chief villain is Sir Frederick Smith (John Windsor-Cunningham, in a snooty, scene-chewing turn) who prosecutes his case by making ridiculously obvious homosexual insinuations that are as adolescent as those made by the dopey jurors. Mr. Goodwin, however, anchors the chaotic production with a dignified performance of a remote character who keeps his dry sense of humor even in the worst of circumstances.
“As a matter of idle curiosity,” he says, “do you despise me as much as I despise you?”
To which Mr. Windsor-Cunningham replies, “More, I should think.”
“Prisoner of the Crown” continues through July 6 at the Irish Repertory Theater, 132 West 22nd Street, Chelsea; (212) 727-2737.
Click here to buy tickets.
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