In order to enjoy the Keegan Theatre/New Island Project’s production of “The Last Days of the Killone Players,” you have to care about many things, including love, fragility, loss and attachment to place. Even more, you have to care about the value of the past, the importance of the present and the validity of change.
In Eric Lucas’ play, all the characters have passionate opinions of the wisdom of letting the future wipe out their history.
“The Last Days of the Killone Players” takes place in “The Present in the West Coast of Ireland.” It finds a group of amateur actors gathering together for a first reading of their final production. The place that they have always called home is going to be turned into a mall in the name of modernity. Understandably, the group has a few thoughts on the subject of progress.
Lucas’ script is full of comedy, but right beneath the surface is his serious intent, his suggestions about the interpersonal politics of small towns. Some of that substantial material is delivered in poetic asides to the audience. Director Leslie Kobylinski intelligently weaves together the humor and the seriousness in Lucas’ rich text, letting various moods mingle easily.
Gerald Browning and Kerri Rambow are well-matched as the unhappily married Hagens. Bruce Alan Rauscher is excellent as Detective McDonagh, whose lyrical asides are all the more intriguing coming from a character who is otherwise a businesslike policeman. Denis, the boy who can’t wait to get away from his stifling hometown, is portrayed with refreshing, goofy energy by Jon Reynolds. John Brennan is delightful as the apparently carefree but in fact complicated Sean. Kevin O’Reilly is well-cast as the diffident, angry Michael.
Kerry Lucas has designed an appropriately spare set for the play. Suspended on the wall behind a wooden table are three vertical panels, painted to suggest a soft, Irish countryside — light lavender and white above, bright green below. Dan Martin’s lighting alters the panels’ colors and intensity. The set is as evocative as the play itself.
