Steward of Christendom at Commencement Bay

There are many entertainment venues in Tacoma, but rarely does one achieve the intimacy that the back room of the Commencement Bay Coffee Company provides. It has been fitted and engineered to accommodate small theatrical productions such as The Steward of Christendom, a three hour Irish drama produced and performed by Studio 21 Theatre. Entering from the warmth of the coffee shop into the theater area with small stage and fifty or so seats on a raised platform, you get a sense of a performance being given just for you and your party.

As you sit, you will notice the stage is spare and may wonder how the company will make it interesting. I was surprised and delighted by what Henryk Wrozynski, the Director, and Ryan Coleman, the light designer, did with the set concept, audio, lighting and design, creating a richness and a hallucinogenic quality to what I thought were four bare walls. They managed to create a greater breadth and depth to the space, which is good, considering the length of the show is daunting. The show requires more than the usual in time and attention, and though I enjoyed it at its full, the person beside me was squirming a bit halfway into the second act.

Sebastian Barry’s emotional play is set almost entirely in the asylum room of his main character, Thomas Dunne, who is based on Barry’s great-grandfather. Though fictionalized to a degree, in the play, as in real life, Dunne (played by Ernest Heller) was the chief superintendent of the Dublin Metropolitan Police (DMP) from 1913-1922. He oversaw the area surrounding Dublin Castle until the Irish Free State takeover in 1922.

There is a great deal of historical information woven into the play, to an extent that to understand and empathize with the characters and their motivations requires some perspective. Without the context much of the motivations of the characters would be incomplete. The folks at Studio 21 Theatre provide that background within the show program including important notes, dates, definitions and yes, even a map, so arrive a bit early in order to study.

However reading history and becoming immersed in the conflict between the fallen hero and his daughters (Kathryn Grace Philbrook, Hate Holland and Samantha Chung) and son (Ryan Coleman) are starkly different. The play makes these academic data points of Irelands past significant and heart breaking, as they drive so much of what each character must fight through as the countries government and its law enforcement changes hands.

Thomas Dunne’s caretakers, Smith (Bill Holland) and Mrs. O’Dea (Anne Wrozynski) are vibrant characters who keep the dialog engaging and who in the whole seem to genuinely feel for the once important and now confined protagonist.

Ultimately the play suits the mission of this self styled “gypsy theatre” company, which is to welcome all actors and those interested in the arts, as well as to take a risk with challenging scripts or produce works by new Playwrights. In this case the risk was in putting on an intellectually stimulating, emotionally challenging, non-linear work that may test the attention span of some theater goers.

The Steward of Christendom runs until September 23rd, with performances Thursday through Saturday with an 8:00 pm curtain and Sundays at 2:00 pm. Tickets are $15 – $20.

More info at Studio 21 Theatre

Andrew Fry blogs about technology and Tacoma on his website Living and Working in the Virtual World. He is active both on stage and off in the the South Sound theater community.