The Cripple of Inishmaan at Chicago Shakespeare Theater | Theater review

In the last decade, the work of Irish phenom McDonagh has become a regional-theater staple: no surprise, given its audience-pleasing blend of methodical structure, Tarantino-esque rhythmic blarney and sharply rendered eccentrics. But few companies can match Galway-based Druid, which debuted the then-unknown writer’s breakout The Beauty Queen of Leenane in 1996, for familiarity with McDonagh’s brand of cruel comedy. This exquisite touring production brings out as if for the first time the power and novelty of his 1997 play, which depicts the consequences, both baleful and happy, when Robert Flaherty’s Man of Aran film crew arrives in rural 1930s Ireland.

It’s impossible to pick out the best of the performances in this impressively deep ensemble: the Beckettian exchanges of Dearbhla Molloy and Ingrid Craigie as elderly shop-minding sisters; Dermot Crowley’s infectiously transparent dishonesty as town gossip Johnnypateen; the volcanic mix of violence and shards of tenderness in Clare Dunne’s Slippy Helen. As the titular Billy Craven, sweetly vulnerable and calculating by turns, Tadhg Murphy nimbly manages the multiple twists of McDonagh’s plot. Director Hynes allows The Cripple ample space to display its ambiguities, turning what could be a mere dramatic mechanism into a strange and haunting experience. You’ll be hard pressed to find a better staging of this play.