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This article by Simon Saltzman was prepared for the March 6, 2002

edition of U.S. 1 Newspaper. All rights reserved.

In New York: `The Matchmaker’

If you’re looking about for some warm-hearted Irish

wit and whimsy, you might think about spending a few convivial hours

at the Irish Repertory Theater where "The Matchmaker" has

set up shop. No, this is not the familiar Thornton Wilder comedy (and

source of the popular musical "Hello Dolly"), but rather a

ripe and ribald dramatization by Phyllis Ryan of a 1977 epistolary

novel by John B. Keane, "Letters of a Matchmaker."

A surprisingly saucy affair it is considering that the action mainly

takes the form of a reading of letters exchanged between a middle-aged

gentleman matchmaker, Dicky Mick Dicky (Des Keogh), and his sister

Marge in America, and his numerous clients, both satisfied and

dissatisfied,

fulfilled and unfulfilled.

The sister and the various local women in search of marriage and all

that such a contract offers are played by Anna Manahan, who won a

Tony award for playing the wretched mother in "The Beauty Queen

of Leenane." With Keogh tackling the title role, as well as the

male clients, these two fine actors are amusing to watch as they

comply

with the romantic entreaties of the dysfunctional, the unhappy, the

lusty, and the lame.

While the text is so rich in local vernacular that it requires an

entire glossary page in the program to prepare you, you wouldn’t want

to be left out of the best belly laughs. After all, you wouldn’t want

to miss the meaning of such expressions as "tack of the dick"

— hadn’t enough penis for a decent wrinkle; "coaxiorum"

— old Irish love potion; "cawbogues" — a man with

no nuts; "poitcheen" — illegal whiskey; "latchiko"

— a totally lazy or useless person, and more.

The letters portray an Ireland of the 1950s and ’60s

when letters, not E-mails, were the most popular means of

communication.

Although the letters serve as an important conveyor of gossip,

romantic

inquiries, and business-like investigations, there is the added fun

of seeing how a matchmaker attempts to protect his clients. The unwary

victims, the sexual predators, the innocent and the worldly, the eager

and the cautious, are revealed as a unique and occasionally

unforgettable

group of characters, each evoked in the delightfully literate style

of author Keane (best known in the United States for the movie of

his play "The Field").

To the actors’ credit, some 20 or so characters, including a woman

with a wooden leg, a five-foot-tall jockey, a bi-sexual Brit, a lusty

widow, a 300-pound Turk, among others equally well-defined — are

all colorfully evoked. There is an earthy flavor to the play that

weaves gently around the affable Mr. Dicky, whose own happy marriage

is suddenly clouded by the illness of his wife, and the threats of

a local priest who believes that matchmaking is the work of the devil.

Tall and wiry, with a flair for accents and affectations, Keogh

appears

to be having a keen a time, as does Manahan, who transforms herself

charmingly from one savory soul in search of a mate to the next.

Although

the play has its tender and sad moments, it is mostly comical in its

depiction of a life-affirming people. Under Michael Scott’s sensitive

direction, the play and its players conjoin to offer glimpses and

glimmers of love and longing in what appears to be a rather bleak

environment. Three stars. You won’t feel cheated.

— Simon Saltzman