“It’s feckin’ funny,” said Natalie Blackman, a sophomore in the actor training program, of the U theater department’s most recent production, “The Cripple of Inishmaan.”
In this dark Irish comedy, Blackman plays the role of 90-year-old Mammy, the oldest woman on the island of Inishmaan, whose late husband was eaten by a shark in 1871.
Set on the Aran Islands in 1934, “Cripple” is playwright Martin McDonagh’s tale based on the true story of a Hollywood film crew venturing to the islands to shoot a documentary.
To the townspeople’s surprise, a crippled orphan bluntly named Cripple Billy, is picked up by the director of the film crew and taken to America to perform a screen test, said Gwen DeVeer, a sophomore in the actor training program who plays the role of Helen, a girl who frequents the candy shop that Cripple Billy’s aunts operate.
Through the course of the play, the audience is witness to “how the village copes with the news,” DeVeer said.
“It’s a play about life in an itty bitty town and about how involved it gets,” Blackman said.
“(Inishmaan) is a town that knows everybody’s business. And so a lot of the play revolves around finding out the real story. There’s a lot of gossip.”
To accurately deliver the gossip of Inishmaan, cast members were coached in the dialect of western Ireland.
“We had a wonderful dialect coach,” DeVeer said of Sarah Shippobotham, head of the ATP. “Every Monday, in lieu of (regular play) rehearsal, we’d have a dialect coaching rehearsal.”
Cast members were given technical direction on how to pronounce vowels and consonants and were then asked to improvise in the dialect. “The entire time, all of us had to speak in the dialect, even on our 10-minute breaks,” DeVeer said.
“Oh, yeah,” Blackman added, “Most of us have been speaking in this dialect for weeks now.”
“It’s a very unique dialect, too,” DeVeer said. “With most Irish dialogues, you think ‘They’re always after me lucky charms,’ but this is an isolated island, so the dialect is very different.”
“Cripple” offers a look into the workings of a foreign Irish island, but also presents audiences with material relatable to their own lives and surroundings. “(The play) is a commentary on Irish culture and the duality of human nature — our ability to do great acts of kindness and also unyielding cruelty,” DeVeer said.
“It’s also interesting when you think of how much American culture is made up of Irish Americans,” she said. “It’s a lot of Americans’ legacy, the Irish culture.”
“There’s stuff about what’s important in life,” Blackman said.
“I think it’s a topical play,” DeVeer said. “It talks about a lot of interesting issues and topics that are relevant to us in 2007 in Salt Lake City. There’s mention of sexual abuse in the Catholic church — “
“In the funniest way possible,” Blackman interrupted.
As an exchange between two characters in “Cripple” goes, “You shouldn’t laugh at other people’s misfortunes…but it’s awful funny.”
Jarad ReddekoppNatalie Blackman and Eb Madson, who play Mammy O’Dougal and Johnny Patin Mike O’Dougal, practice their lines during a dress rehearsal Tuesday night for the upcoming play “The Cripple of Inishmaan.”