STAGE REVIEW : ‘Away Alone’ Tells Plight of Irish Illegals

“Away Alone,” the Janet Noble play at the Court Theatre, is to be congratulated for making the non-Irish among us more aware of the plight of a group of illegal aliens we rarely hear about: the Irish. More than 100,000 of them are in this country, according to a program note from director Fionnula Flanagan, and they like it better if we don’t notice they’re here. Drawing attention is not high on their priority list.

Noble’s play traces the story of an appealing young boyo named Liam (Neal McDonough) from the moment he arrives in the Bronx and meets up with other Irish illegals who offer him a half a bed in return for a share of the rent.

“Away Alone” is a rite-of-passage play--from innocence to disillusionment. We get to follow the personal tribulations of the motley band with whom Liam shares a crumbling Bronx apartment: the enterprising Owen (Donal J. Sheehan), who hopes to open a diner with an American name back home in Ireland; the ambitious Paddy (Barry O’Rourke), who wants to marry wealthily, and the poet Desmond (Sean Gregory Sullivan), perpetually in need of motivation and a job (“I’m not depressed; I’m unemployed in the land of opportunity, that’s all”).

They are visited by the female contingent from across the hall, the pragmatic Mary (Cora Murray) and the uptight Breda (Marin Alm), a nun manquee secretly praying to be sexually discovered.

These are distinct and colorful characters (not too colorful, one is happy to report), written with a good deal of sensitivity and played with a great deal of spirit. Call this play an Irish “Moonchildren.” What events lack in excitement is almost made up for in the quality of the staging, which delivers humor, anger and melancholy in about equal measure at a brisk and engaging pace.

Almost but not quite.

Beyond its bracing mix of youthful camaraderie and homesickness, the play lingers too long in making its affectionate case. There’s not enough substance in “Away Alone” to fill out its nearly three hours, and it’s much to the actors’ credit that they deliver sufficiently tasty and faceted performances to command our attention, if not always our interest. About 30 minutes’ worth of nipping and tucking would not be out of order.

Lawrence Oberman’s lights and Lisa Hannah’s costumes serve the play and the characters well. Wendy Guidery’s set design is unostentatiously on target, even if it switches a bit awkwardly from the Bronx bar where new arrivals meet through the auspices of the genial Italian barkeep, Mario (Joe Nipote), to the ramshackle apartment where they end up living.

Catherine MacNeal produced for the Usual Suspects company. A second set of suspects will perform at Sunday matinees starting June 30 “and when announced.”

* “Away Alone,” Court Theatre, 722 N. La Cienega Blvd., West Hollywood. Thursdays-Saturdays, 8 p.m.; Sundays, 2 and 7 p.m. Ends Aug. 4. $15-$20; (213) 466-1767. Running time: 2 hours, 45 minutes.