The Two Stooges

Irish brothers channel Larry, Curly and Moe in The Lonesome West

By Mary Damiano

John Manzelli gets the better of Antonio Amadeo play brothers in The Lonesome West.

If you believe playwright Martin McDonagh, the Irish countryside is populated by a bunch of hard-drinking, hard-fighting, hard-cussing denizens who’d shed blood over an insult as easily as downing a pint of Guinness.

Last summer, GableStage presented McDonagh’s bloody, stylized The Lieutenant of Inishmore, in which a man goes to extremes to avenge the death of his cat. Now, fledgling troupe Naked Stage has chosen for its second show The Lonesome West, about two brothers living together after their father’s not-so-accidental death by gunshot. Sort of a violent, Irish version of Sam Shepard’s True West, The Lonesome West is part of McDonagh’s mid-‘90s Galway Trilogy, which includes the Tony-nominated play The Beauty Queen of Leenane.

Also set in Leenane, The Lonesome West begins right after Coleman (John Manzelli) and Valene (Antonio Amadeo) come home from their father’s funeral. Neither seems particularly broken up about the old man’s death. They leave that to Father Welsh (Adam Simpson), a young priest who blames all of the violent shortcomings of his congregation on his own failings as a man of the cloth. While they brighten up a bit around Girleen (Katherine Amadeo), the pretty girl who delivers their booze, the brothers tease and taunt each other, pouncing and pummeling at the slightest provocation. About the only thing they agree on is their desire for an opposing football team’s young goalie to lapse into a coma and die so their town’s team of little girls has a better shot at winning the big game. But constant fighting is how Coleman and Valene communicate, a fact of life that poor Father Welsh can’t understand, so he goes to extremes to finally get some souls saved.

Manzelli and Amadeo, real life best friends and co-founders of Naked Stage, have the chemistry needed to play Coleman and Valene. Together they channel all Three Stooges in their petty arguments and comical brawls. Katherine Amadeo delivers a feisty and poignant performance, especially in the revealing second act scene between Girleen and Father Welsh. But some of the play’s finest moments belong to Simpson as Father Welsh, a complex man whose daily crisis of faith is ridiculed by his flock. Simpson is mesmerizing in a monologue that, in the wrong hands, could have been a static bore.

The technical aspects of the production shine as much as the performances — the impressive scenic design of the brothers’ living room and kitchen is appropriately shabby and cluttered.

Director Margaret Ledford makes all the right choices, leading her cast and crew to deliver some terrific work, resulting in a funny, gritty, hard-scrabble production that hits the right notes of McDonagh’s lyrical violence.

The Lonesome West runs through Feb. 17 at the Pelican Theatre, located on the Barry University campus,11300 N.E. Second Ave., Miami Shores. Show times are Thursday through Saturday, 8 p.m.; Sunday, 2 p.m. For more information, call 954-261-1785 or visit www.nakedstage.org.

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