Arnold Thomas Fanning's "Griswold" at the Civic Theatre- Wednesday, June 20

              

               Arnold Thomas Fanning’s new play, Griswold, confronts the concept of Irish masculinity that is so common in Irish theatre, but with an emphasis on how this masculinity develops when Irish males are outside of Ireland. Fanning furthermore addresses how this masculinity affects the Irish emigrant experience in terms of coping with trauma and maintaining friendships in foreign countries.

            Griswold centers around the lives of two illegal Irish immigrants, Hed (Thomas Farrell) and Taidhg (Shane Gately) living in New York City soon after 9-11. The two have found trouble finding work since the mass paranoia about terrorism after the attacks. Hed, traumatized by the event and the destruction of the city, has become agoraphobic and refuses to leave their home, leaving Taidhg to work to provide for the both of them. They are squatting in a cramped living space filled with objects that Taidhg has gleaned from dumpsters. In searching for a job to support himself and Hed, Taidhg meets the mysterious figure of Mr. G, who he keeps Hed and the audience mostly in the dark about throughout the course of the play. He becomes so embroiled with and indebted to Mr. G that he offers Hed’s services as a masseur (with the proverbial “happy ending”) to pay off his debts and save his own life. Rather than become a male prostitute, Hed betrays Taidhg and leaves, adopting the persona of Griswold and leaving their home for good.

            The set first appears to be simply a chaotic jumble of junk, but it is transformed into a captivating counterpart of the rubble of Ground Zero that exists outside when the lights first dim to begin the show. As an American, the dimming and maneuvering of the lights drew me into the plot in a heart-rending instant as the jumble of junk suddenly created a shadowscape depicting the familiar New York skyline, complete with the Twin Towers, that hasn’t been seen since that fateful day in 2011. Hed, the first character on stage, calmly sits at his desk and throws a paper airplane towards this contrived skyline, furthering the poignancy of the moment and recalling the instants when the attack first occurred. In a talkback after the show, set designer Sonia Haccius described how she examined photographs from directly after the attack and allowed them to shape the set that she was designing. The impossible angles that the rubble created and the monochromatic ashy nature of the area around the Twin Towers were incorporated into the set, tying the chaos of the outside world in to the disruption of the characters’ lives. The set that is created from the interaction between Sonia Haccius and lighting designer Colm Maher skillfully transports the audience to the physical and emotional setting in which the play takes place.

            Griswold examines different approaches to integration and maintenance of an Irish identity by Irish immigrants in foreign countries, a topic with which the playwright has personal experience. Taidhg has no desire to conform to American customs and ways of life, exemplified by his constant insistence on calling dumpsters “skips,” as they are called in Ireland. He is also the one of the pair who voices an eagerness to return home to Ireland. Hed, on the other hand, is fascinated by American culture and traditions. He makes sure to correct Taidhg every time he mentions skips, and appears to have no intention of going back to Ireland. In the excerpts of his writing that the audience is privy to, Hed speaks romantically of the city and people of New York, demonstrating his love and admiration for them. At the very end, when Hed takes on the persona of Griswold, we see that he has been practicing an American accent, the final step in adopting a new American identity. Irish emigration is quite common, and has been for decades. Emigrants must decide upon entering a new country which approach they will take to living there, Hed’s or Taidhg’s. While both are valid, it is clear that the playwright, Arnold Thomas Fanning, sides more with Hed, since in the end Hed is the only one who survives in America. Furthermore, it is because of his desire to integrate that Hed is able to come into his own and make the choices that will ensure his survival, even if it means turning on his best friend.

            The idea of the stereotypical Irish masculinity is one that surfaces time and time again in Irish literature and theatre. Griswold takes this idea of masculinity and experiments with how it is challenged in a setting outside of Ireland. From his first entrance, the audience can see that Taidhg is the embodiment of the Irish manly man. He enters, muscles aching, from the physical labors at which he has been toiling throughout the day, showing that he is clearly the breadwinner of the duo. He demonstrates time and time again throughout the course of the play that he will not shy away from a confrontation, unless his life is very clearly threatened as it is by Mr. G in the final acts of the work. Although Hed is not particularly macho during most of the action, he too possesses some of the typical masculine qualities found in Irish theatre. In particular, he joins Taidhg in the denigration of all of the women mentioned during the play. At any mention by Taidhg of Noreen, a mutual acquaintance who works at a bar, he snorts and calls her “boring Noreen” under his breath. When Taidhg returns to their living space after being gone for several days, he tells Hed that he spent the whole time living in the lap of luxury and consorting with two women. In his account, these women are reduced to their race and sexual proclivity. By putting women down and reducing them to their sexual merits, the men assert themselves as being powerful and “masculine.”

            In fulfilling their masculine roles, Hed and Taidhg both cope with trauma differently. Both suffer after September 11^th, but neither of them show grief in a typical way, because to cry or lament would be considered too effeminate. Hed shuts himself off from the world entirely. He is too afraid of what he might find in the disaster-stricken outer world, so he dedicates himself to home life and the pursuit of his hobby of writing. Taidhg salvages rubbish from dumpsters. This has more potential for productivity since the items can be sold down the line, but this habit of Taidhg’s seems almost more like a compulsion that he must perform to feel more at ease with what has happened in the city. Although their home is filled, Taidhg continues to search for more recoverable items, and encourages Hed to do so as well once he begins to venture outside again. This is more “masculine” than crying or mourning, since it can lead to a profit and involves working with one’s hands.

            Griswold also examines the idea of masculine friendship. Hed and Taidhg have clearly been friends since childhood, since they share mutual schoolday memories. This has forged a significant bond between them. When Hed is incapacitated by agoraphobia after the 9-11 attacks, Taidhg continues to care for and support him, though it would be far easier for him to simply walk away. Additionally, Hed feels hurt when Taidhg won’t share with him what has been weighing on his mind. Hed believes that, as friends, the two of them should be able to share their lives with each other. However, the limits of their friendship are tested as Taidhg essentially sells his friend into sexual slavery for his own benefit, and as Hed makes the decision to become Griswold and condemn Taidhg to certain death. Both of these actions tie in with Taidhg’s and Hed’s respective masculinities. Taidhg is adverse to becoming a male prostitute himself, since there is little room for homosexuality in the Irish masculine ideal. Instead, he signs his arguably less masculine friend up for this fate. Hed, however, protests—“But I’m a bloke!”—and his ultimate decision is to turn on his friend and become a more masculine version of himself, Griswold, who has the machismo to trick Taidhg and Mr. G and to finally leave his home for good.

In the end, the chaos of 9-11 that Hed has been trying so hard to avoid by not leaving his home finds its way into his life anyway, and he must embrace it or perish. In order to survive, he must become a more masculine, more Americanized version of himself than he has been in the past, showing that the Irish masculine ideal can still exist, even outside of Ireland. 

~Alana Reese

Part of our group outside the theatre.