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| Helena Carroll, Stephen McHattie, Aline McMahon, Paul Shyre, Dermot McNamara. |
Paul Shyre brought his adaptation of volume two in O’Casey’s
six-volume autobiography back to New York after several earlier incarnations
going back to 1956. Its presentation happened only because a show previously
scheduled for the same slot in Lincoln Center’s season had to be withdrawn and
a substitution was needed.
This is a reader’s theatre type of play, with its cast of
three males and two females seated on stools, scripts in hand, during the
performance. They look out into space more than they address each other. Shyre
played the narrator who links the scenes together.
Mel Gussow wrote that “The play manages to catch the essence
of its source and with an absence of theatrics, makes it exceedingly theatrical
and dramatic.” He added,
“Pictures in the Hallway” follows
the progression of Sean O'Casey . . . from the comforting envelopment of his
mother's house to his first ventures into the worlds of business, romance,
literature, theater and political rebellion.
This is a young man's work —almost
more poem than autobiography — about a young man's passion, which seems equally
divided among Milton and Shakespeare, the seduction of (or more accurately, by)
ladies, and an ascending sense of self.
Aside from Stephen McHattie, who played O’Casey (called Johnny Casside), the actors each covered multiple roles. Top honors
went to Shyre and veteran Aline McMahon, both having been in the original cast.
Others involved were Helena Carroll, Michael McGuire, and Dermot McNamara.