On the night before his departure to a new life in
Philadelphia, Gareth (Gar) O’Donnell
resists this huge change in his life and doubts his big move.
Gar is a troubled mid 20-something living in a stagnant
household alongside his elderly father S.B,
without having a familial relationship.
They treat each other as if they were only ‘boss and employee’, working father
in their little shop that contains a mish-mash of items, and not father and
son. Madge, the exasperated housekeeper,
is the only member of the household that creates any warmth or family love
within the household, whilst still keeping to her employee status. With her traditional ‘old Irish lady’ antics,
Gar sees her as a motherly figure (but not as a replacement for his mother, who
died 3 days after his birth.)
‘Philadelphia, Here I Come!’ is set
during the dire times of the 1950s in Ireland dubbed the ‘doom and gloom’ time,
the worst since the famine in the mid-1800s.
Agriculture was the mainstay of the Irish economy and in the 50s there
was a huge decline in this area. The
state did not put in sufficient effort to develop new industries to help boost
other areas, therefore as a consequence there was insufficient work available
for the thousands of young males in Ireland.
Most young people knew the only way they were going to make a life for
themselves was to immigrate to another country with more prospects – America was
seen as the ‘land of opportunities’.
This is where we see our protagonist headed towards.
Throughout
‘Philadelphia, Here I Come!’ we are introduced to various encounters
with:
Ex-girlfriend
and daughter of a Senator - Kate
Sloppy
and lazy friends - Ned, Tom and Joe
Old
school principal – Master Boyle
Local
Parish Priest - Canon Mick O’Byrne
Relatives
in America who are sponsoring Gar’s travels and employment opportunities in the
USA – Lizzy and Con Sweeny and their
friend Ben Burton.
However,
there is one character left to be mentioned….. that is Gar O’Donnell….. Yes,
there are two of them – the public Gar and the private Gar whom only the public
Gar can see and hear! These are the two
views of the protagonish. The private
Gar is the man within, the conscience and alter ego, the secret thoughts – The ID.
The
female characters are the ones who spurn the content. Maude in her constant packing frenzy getting
Gar ready for his immigration, Kate (or Kathy as Gar often calls her) who the
audience can see as more of a direction to wanting to be loved rather than Gar specifically
loving her. And Lizzie, the motherless
Aunt, who is seeking a surrogate to love and adore as her own. These women are the driving forces for Gar to
move overseas for a life change.
The
men, however, are the juxtaposition within the plot. Gar and his father have no relationship to
speak of. His old school principal
thinks gar is a no-hoper with no drive and smarts to find his way on the
world. The Parish priest who is not
interested in helping Gar through his big change.
This is
where the private Gar comes into his own – his wit and tenacity for belittling
these older men and their penchant for drinking, sitting around and not living
life to the fullest. Private Gar mirrors
S.B’s routine and mocks his monotonous and completely predictable existence. Private Gar ridicules and belittles these
older men and becomes increasingly frustrated towards their existence. Private Gar especially demeans S.B and his
nightly routine after work and before bed, following and mirroring his
movements and commenting on his unchanging bedtime standard as a fashion walk.
It all comes to a head close to the end of the play when Private Gar speaks fluently and full of emotion cradling these deep-seated thoughts that Public Gar has always hidden in the recesses of his mind:
“Listen! Listen! Listen! D’you hear it? D’you know what the music
says? (to S.B) It says that once upon a time a boy and his father sat in a blue
boat on a lake on an afternoon in May, and on that afternoon a great beauty
happened, a beauty that has haunted the boy ever since, because he wonders now
did it really take place or did he imagine it.
There are only the two of us, he says; each of us is all the other has;
and why can we not even look at each other? Have pity on us, he says; have
goddam pity on every goddam bloody man jack of us. To hell with all the strong silent men!”
His
friends are stuck in the same routine and rut that Gar is familiar with, yet
wanting to change (even if it is a reluctant change). These three young male friends vocalise the
frustrations that the three older men embody.
This is important to understand as this is the one thing that both
Public and Private Gar are trying to move away from and is crucial to
understanding the predicament that Gar is in – Should he leave his comfortable
life for a new adventure or stay behind and grow into a mundane existence so
much like his fathers and the same direction where his friends are headed.
Music plays an important part within this production. The 'Public' Gar is often singing or humming in his bedroom, particularly 'California, Here I Come', interchanging 'California' with 'Philadelphia' (...for obvious reasons!) and some traditional Scottish ditties, to take himself away from the situations and abate his fears.
In Act One he listens to the First movement of Mendelssohn Violin Concerto.
At the very start of the Second Act, we hear the Second movement of Mendelssohn Violin Concerto, which creates a slightly differing feel to the first. The first movement is quite somber and filled with emergency, whereas the second movement is more uplifting and slightly more joyous but still in-keeping with the tone of the first. We can feel the difference in the character though this music - We know that Gar is more determined to succeed in his new life path than earlier in the play.
Keeping in tone with the setting of 'Philadelphia, Here I Come!' is the traditional Irish Ceilidh band music which is completely uplifting and makes you want to do a jig around the bedroom!
All in all, a beautiful read on the matters of the heart versus the head and the strong pull that each of them have on our mundane existence.
Next Week: 'Hedda Gabbler' by Henrik Ibsen
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