The actor John Keating is really a tall bag of bones with fright-wig hair and frightened-deer eyes, a glance crafted for character sections. That he nabs the guide function in Laoisa Sexton’s “The Pigeon while in the Taj Mahal” on the Irish Repertory Theater is motive enough to check out it, even though the Engage in’s protracted execution wears out the prickly attraction of its premise.
Mr. Keating performs the Pigeon with the title, a sweater-clad, Elvis-quoting naïf who life within a trailer park in rural Eire. Is he lonesome tonight? Not specifically. But he’s clearly thrilled to find a youthful girl in smeared make-up and ripped tulle dumped on his doorstep. “You've got the unheard of elegance,” he suggests to her unconscious type. “Like a swan in the dirty lake!” This is often Lolly (Ms. Sexton), a plastered bride-to-be overdosed on vodka and body glitter. On waking, she initial threatens Pigeon that has a hammer and afterwards softens at his odd hospitality.
As soon as Lolly is roughly awake, Ms. Sexton has fantastic enjoyable contrasting her shallow town variations with Pigeon’s callow ways. “D’you got apple iphone, d’you are doing?” she whines. “I cell phone?” the perplexed Pigeon asks. But as they remain during the trailer, am dao gia cho nam the Engage in begins to spin its motionless wheels. There’s plenty of dialogue and plenty of depredation, Primarily once An additional bachelorette (Zoë Watkins) arrives, but owning set these characters alongside one another, Ms. Sexton plus the director, Alan Cox, don’t know rather how to proceed with them. Regardless of a persistent theme of innocence and practical experience, and several questions on the place of folklore in contemporary Ireland, “The Pigeon in the Taj Mahal” generally feels like a 1-act that outgrew by itself. A little less discussion wouldn’t damage.
But motion worries Ms. Sexton much a lot less than furnishing a vigorous, in some cases vulgar showcase for herself and the opposite actors. A deft performer, she clearly enjoys Lolly’s woozy, crude obliviousness, but she is equally as satisfied to cede the stage to Mr. Keating. Pigeon isn’t a wholly credible character, but Mr. Keating lends him heat and a mild kind of bravery, even though wearing lipstick in addition to a penis headband. Cheers to Ms. Sexton for permitting this distinctive actor spread his wings.