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Review: Kate Mulgrew Lights Up The Beacon
September 22, 2024, 9:47.04 pm ET

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Photo: Carol Rosegg

By Brian Scott Lipton

Nearly 50 years ago, Kate Mulgrew literally brightened our daytime TV screens for the first time as the fiery Mary Ryan on the ABC daytime soap “Ryan’s Hope.” Lucky for us, time has done nothing to dim this great actress’ luster as proven by her intense and enlightening performance as the feisty artist Beiv (seemingly pronounced “Babe”) in Nancy Harris’ play “The Beacon,” now premiering at the Irish Repertory Theatre. Indeed, Mulgrew’s stunning performance is the major reason to sit through Harris’ rambling dysfunctional family melodrama, which is not particularly well served by Marc Atkinson Borrull’s somewhat sluggish direction.

We first meet Beiv at her seaside Irish cottage (nicely designed by Colm McNally), where her latest work is being analyzed and overpraised by fawning admirer Bonnie (Ayana Workman, failing to rise above a badly written part), and flattery isn’t really getting Bonnie anywhere. Soon, however, we discover the whole situation is not what we imagined – and to put it mildly, is completely screwed-up (not altogether believably, either).

Bonnie is actually her daughter-in-law, although no one previously told Beiv that the eager-to-please young woman has recently married her estranged son Colm (a mostly excellent Zach Appleman, struggling to keep his accent), who has returned to Ireland after nine years – on his honeymoon, no less.

Now in his 30s, Colm has become a rather obnoxious, disdainful Silicon Valley tech-bro, and reserves his greatest hatred for his mother -- mostly for her possible role in the mysterious death of her ex-husband, Michael who died on a middle-of-the-night boat ride. (Being that I still watch soap operas, I expected Michael to appear sometime in the second act. He doesn’t!)

Meanwhile, Beiv hasn’t told Colm that she is expanding the seaside cottage – which previously belonged to Michael – so that it’s becoming a one-room artist studio exposed to the outdoors elements, and there’s really no place (other than the floor) for the newlyweds to sleep. She has also neglected to mention that Colm’s childhood bestie Donal (an impressively moving Sean Bell) is also back in Ireland and is Beiv’s closest (non-sexual) companion.

Like her fellow Irish dramatist, Eugene O’Neill, Harris seems mostly interested in the gradual unveiling of truths, both difficult and simple, from what really happened on the night of Michael’s death – as well as what happened to Michael as a teenager -- to the meaning of Beiv’s paintings, the real nature of Donal and Colm’s relationship, and (spoiler alert) where Bonnie has run off to (and why) after a brutal fight with Colm.

Sadly, the major problem with “The Beacon” (which runs 2 ½ hours) is that we mostly care about the Beiv-Colm relationship, fractious as it might be, and Mulgrew is regrettably absent for large parts of the second act. We quickly miss her ability to get a laugh with a cock of the eye or her exasperated verbal delivery. (I may never think of the word “flaky” in the same way again).

Moreover, while Beiv lets other people see her as a fearless, unconventional, take-no-prisoners type, Mulgrew never lets us forget the vulnerable woman buried beneath her steely armor. Indeed, during the show’s final section when she has a true heart-to-heart with Colm about Michael’s past – in what will obviously be the pair’s final chat – Mulgrew will break your heart as she’s forced to say out loud words she obviously never intended to speak.

What’s saddest is that hope – for both resolution or contentment -- seems to be in short supply for any of the characters in “The Beacon.” Lights out!

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