Ironbound
The sold-out run of Ironbound, by Polish playwright Martyna Majok, at the Rattlestick Playwrights Theater was recently extended through April 24, allowing our entry. Five minutes into the show we easily saw why this play has become such a sensation in the Downtown theater scene. Tony Award-nominated actor Marin Ireland is nothing short of sensational. Reverberations of Meryl Streep in Sophie’s Choice will immediately come to mind. We last saw her as Marie Antoinette in the eponymous play. Now she makes her transformation into this Polish immigrant living life on the edge. The production is minimalist but in no way shortchanged in this story that spans a period of 20 years - without Ms. Ireland ever leaving the stage. Magical would be the appropriate term.
The actors in the supportive roles (Morgan Sector, Josiah Bania, and Shiloh Fernandez), each of whom ushers in a chapter and time-frame of the story, are equal to the task of playing opposite Ms. Ireland. Very briefly, our story covers interactions with husbands, lovers, strangers, sons and cell phone calls, all taking place at a grimy bus stop in the Ironbound section of Newark. The emotions that we experience over this 20-year span are beautifully brought to life by the cast of talented actors.
“We are not having nice conversation”
If facial expression were turned into an Olympic sport, Ms. Ireland would be a gold medalist. Not only does she run the gamut between north and south, joy and sadness, but every direction in between. It is amazing how she folds the Eastern Block persona into every aspect of her presence on stage.
True confession, we love short productions. At 80 minutes, the play gets it all done without even the slightest sense of time constraint compromise.
Marin Ireland
The opportunity to see Ms. Ireland in these small Downtown venues (Blasted, Marie Antoinette, Ironbound) will surely end in the near future as she is lost to Broadway, the big screen, and little screen. I would encourage everyone to take advantage of the extension of this run.
Why we went: Marin Ireland, period.
JMG
Side Notes:
Located in the West Village, The Place, is a neighborhood gem with Old World ambiance. Our friends, John and Mary Jane, took us to this wonderful spot where we sat at a table in the window and enjoyed the street scape as well as the view of the handsome bar. The menu features Pan-European and American offerings and we chose liberally from the appetizer section - delicate meatballs, fabulous sweet potato ravioli, steamed PEI mussels, etc. Each bite was scrumptious and Joel declared his Margarita on the rocks "the best ever."