At the Mint Theater, Teresa Deevy's Temporal Powers tackles the moral and practical issues of right and wrong through the lenses of Michael and Min Donovan's relationship, a once-passionate marriage that is now as eviscerated of its inner vitality as its material possessions.
Money is the root of this story of Ireland's economic evils and is bolstered by institutionalized religion and ingrained sexism. Michael Donovan (Aiden Redmond) and his wife, Min (Rosie Benton) are destitute as the play opens in 1927. Evicted from their home, they are temporarily sheltered in the ruins of a country cottage. Rosie Benton fiercely rules the stage as the frustrated Min, who cannot contain her bitterness at their life and rails at her husband's stoic demeanor. Michael is resigned to working hard for little money. This is God's will, he feels. "It must be the poverty was meant for us." Not so for Min.
When Michael accidentally comes across an envelope full of money, Min is elated. This could be their salvation. Michael agrees but is uneasy about keeping the money. It does not belong to him. Perhaps was stolen. He decides to take it to Father O'Brien, the local priest, for safe keeping. Battling to keep alive the last spark of hope she has for their life, Min demands they use the money to go to America and start a new life.
As the story craftily bobs and weaves, it seems obvious that there is no solution to right and wrong in this situation. Family and neighbors arrive with their own problems. As it turns out, the money was indeed stolen by one family member, Ned (Con Horgan), a low-life married to Michael's long-suffering sister, Maggie (Bairbre Downling). When Min discovers this, she conspires with Ned to grab the money from Michael and split it.
Director Jonathan Bank steers a difficult course, eliciting deftly chiseled performances, giving the story strengths that carry it past the complex dialects. Redmond's Michael and Benton's portrayal of Min contain mixes of emotion below the immediate crisis. Even as Min rages against Michael, her love for him eventually becomes evident, and Michael also displays his own internal fury seething beneath his placid exterior. The robber, Ned, is a shifty manipulator who for some reason is protected by the community. More likeable is young local, Moses (Eli James), in love with the sunny, Lizzie (Wrenn Schmidt), but their romance is on rocky terrain, subject to the furies of Moses' controlling mother, Daisy, played by Fiana Toibin. It would help to read Temporal Powers before seeing it. Even with Deevy's thoughtful book, the vibrant performances, spirited characters, and dialogue coach, Amy Stoller's program insights, the colorful Gaelic idioms and dialects demand concentration for three acts. The whiskey-tasting during two intermissions may help or at least inspire debate about a play that was written in 1932 but remains quite relevant today.
