Play Review The Cripple of Inishmaan
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The cripple of what! The cripple of an Irishman? Ohh, INISHMAANwait a minute. It becomes difficult to begin to understand a production when you first have to figure out the relevance of the title of the play. Throughout the performance I was continuously trying to decipher the story through the dialogue while at the same time trying to figure out where they were and where they were going. It wasn't until after the play when I looked at the program, that I discovered that this was a real place, somewhere around Ireland, with islands all named with Inish, seemingly just to upset and bewilder us all when someone decides to make a play about them. Don't think that I'm trying to disenfranchise historical plays that are meant to educate by this evaluation, I in fact strongly believe theatre is a great tool for learning. But in the case of The Cripple of Inishmaan the education value was lost in a sea of irrelevance and sappiness, drowning out the plot to the point where the intent is almost lost completely. The play simply drew itself out way too long, reducing the characters' once brilliant personalities into annoying blabber. I honestly believe that I'm not the only one who questioned the mortality of "Cripple Billy" after he made more comebacks than Michael Jordan during the course of the night...