The actor John Keating is often a tall bag of bones with fright-wig hair and frightened-deer eyes, a glance designed for character parts. That he nabs the direct part in Laoisa Sexton’s “The Pigeon from the Taj Mahal” at the Irish Repertory Theater is cause ample to view it, regardless of whether the Perform’s protracted execution wears out the prickly attraction of its premise.
Mr. Keating performs the Pigeon on the title, a sweater-clad, Elvis-quoting naïf who life inside a trailer park in rural Ireland. Is huong dan am dao gia he lonesome tonight? Not exactly. But he’s clearly thrilled to find a young girl in smeared make-up and ripped tulle dumped on his doorstep. “You might have the unheard of elegance,” he says to her unconscious form. “Just like a swan inside of a filthy lake!” This can be Lolly (Ms. Sexton), a plastered bride-to-be overdosed on vodka and system glitter. On waking, she initial threatens Pigeon with a hammer and afterwards softens at his odd hospitality.
As soon as Lolly is more or less awake, Ms. Sexton has very good fun contrasting her shallow town types with Pigeon’s callow ways. “D’you bought iPhone, d’you need to do?” she whines. “I telephone?” the perplexed Pigeon asks. But as they remain in the trailer, the Engage in begins to spin its motionless wheels. There’s loads of dialogue and many depredation, especially after One more bachelorette (Zoë Watkins) comes, but acquiring set these people with each other, Ms. Sexton as well as the director, Alan Cox, don’t know fairly how to proceed with them. Even with a persistent concept of innocence and working experience, and a few questions about the put of folklore in contemporary Ireland, “The Pigeon during the Taj Mahal” mostly looks like a just one-act that outgrew by itself. A little less discussion wouldn’t harm.
But action concerns Ms. Sexton considerably fewer than supplying a vigorous, in some cases vulgar showcase for herself and one other actors. A deft performer, she Plainly enjoys Lolly’s woozy, crude obliviousness, but she's equally as pleased to cede the stage to Mr. Keating. Pigeon isn’t a completely credible character, but Mr. Keating lends him heat and a delicate sort of bravery, even whilst sporting lipstick and a penis headband. Cheers to Ms. Sexton for permitting this exclusive actor distribute his wings.