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Bovine intervention
Inis Nua presents Noni Stapleton's 'Charolais'
Mark Cofta
Inis Nua Theatre Company's annual spring Pop-Up Play in a Pub — a close cousin of Tiny Dynamite's A Play, a Pie, and a Pint program — scores big again with Charolais, an hourlong monologue by Noni Stapleton, performed by the always reliable Corinna Burns.
Irish playwrights have a special skill for outrageously funny monologues, and Charolais is no exception. Burns plays Siobhan, whose hot and happy relationship with farmer Jimmy is compromised by Jimmy's unpleasant mother Breda; Jimmy's afraid to tell his mother that Siobhan is pregnant.
Mad cow
Burns delights as the mad — in both senses of the word — and hugely pregnant Siobhan, railing about "Cyclops" Breda, who’s blind in one eye. She also criticizes mama's-boy Jimmy while regaling us with details of their sexual trysts in his barn.
She's even more outrageous, though, playing Jimmy's prize cow — Siobhan's rival for his affections. The Charolais — the term, pronounced "SHAR-oh-lay," for a French breed — speaks in a hilarious French patois. Imagine a bovine Pepé Le Pew bemoaning her "crushing ennui" and yearning for romance with a handsome bull. She tells her story and asks us, "Very MOO-ving, no?" Yes!
When the Charolais becomes pregnant too (sadly for her, through artificial insemination), Siobhan gleefully plots her murder — though one can't just ask people how to kill a cow and hide the evidence — and muses about Breda's demise as well.
Hibernian tone
An American playwright might skew Siobhan's story toward the dark and disturbing or lead us to condemn her morally. Stapleton, an Irish actor who wrote and performed Charolais when it premiered in 2014, writes Siobhan sympathetically, despite the character’s homicidal proclivities.
Burns's warmth and sincerity, plus her skillful interaction with the crowd in Fergie's Pub's snug upstairs bar, win us over. Director Tom Reing's deft guidance is aided, no doubt, by his considerable experience with similar Irish monologues.
Inis Nua's Pop-Up Play in a Pub is scheduled well for after-work, early-evening midweek entertainment. Tickets include a meat or veggie pie (an authentic small pastry by Stargazy) and choice of draft beer, wine, or soda. Inis Nua has already scheduled another for its 2018-19 season.
Charolais's shocks and twists go well with a drink or two, but its biggest surprise might be its grim yet hopeful ending. See it while you can.
What, When, Where
Charolais. By Noni Stapleton, Tom Reing directed. Inis Nua Theatre Company. Through May 30, 2018, at Fergie's Pub, 1214 Sansom Street, Philadelphia. (215) 454-9776 or inisnuatheatre.org.
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