A compelling actorly partnership makes a must-see of Irish Rep’s revival of Brian Friel’s breakout 1964 hit Philadelphia, Here I Come, directed by company co-founder Ciarán O’Reilly. He has conjured a perfect pairing with David McElwee as Gar (Public) – a 25-year-old Ballybeg grocer’s son about to emigrate to the U.S. – and A.J. Shively as his inner self, the antic, impassioned Gar (Private). Despite both actors’ impressively convincing brogues (kudos to dialect coach Jane Guyer Fujita), neither actor is a product of the Auld Sod, though Shively was in fact born in Dublin – Ohio. You may recall his outstanding step-dancing chops in the 2022 Broadway musical Paradise Square.
Both actors are phenomenal. The Gars start out kidlike, doing their favorite bits up in his/their bedroom (nice, spare set design by Charlie Corcoran). Simultaneous psyched and scared to be heading off, the pair co-mimic, among other bits, John Wayne astride a battered old suitcase and Elvis rendering Gar’s gloss on the Al Jolson song that gives the play its title.
[Read Roma Torre’s ★★★★★ review here.]
As the backstory unfolds in the course of one night, pre-departure, McElwee’s face gradually ages amid the revelations concerning his impulse to cut loose: a thwarted love for a girl adjudged to be above his station (Clare O’Malley, unconvincingly ingenuous); an incommunicative elderly drudge of a father (O’Reilly himself, ultimately heart-breaking); a teenaged mother who died within days giving birth; and, serving in her place, the housekeeper Madge, a sharp-tongued softie (think Thelma Ritter). As performed by Terry Donnelly with exquisite understatement, Madge – childless, thankless – embodies the pathos that Gar feels compelled to leave behind.
Gar’s U.S. sponsor pops up in an interlude that’s not quite of a piece with the sensitivity imbuing the production as a whole. Deirdre Madigan does a fine job portraying the crass Ugly American aunt who’ll be, in essence, adopting the adult Gar, but this scene doesn’t jibe with the rest and Inner Gar’s revulsion comes across as outsized.
Also a bit out of joint, tenor-wise, is a parting beer with a trio of Gar’s buddies. Friel seems almost prescient in having formulated this takedown of bro culture, with its boastful – and patently wishful – sexual braggadocio. The group’s presumed camaraderie? Yet another illusion that Gar must shed. Tellingly, in a subtle reveal, it falls to Madge, the steadily beating heart of the play, to convene the old gang.
The stellar performances of McElwee and Shively, playing off each other, more than suffice to make this revival compulsory viewing. In the course of one pivotal evening, Outer Gar segues from boy to man, as giddy optimism evolves into an overdue reckoning. Inner Gar comes along for the ride, as an antic, relentlessly truthful prod. At least, after this “American wake” – when dreams and hopes are inevitably reassessed – the public Gar will have has inner self’s irrepressible energy and honesty to see him through.
Philadelphia Here I Come opened March 24, 2024, at the Irish Repertory Theatre and runs through May 5. Tickets and information: irishrep.org
