STAGE REVIEW : Steve Allen’s ‘The Wake’: A Touching Remembrance

There’s an old joke the Irish tell about the difference between an Irish wedding and an Irish wake. The wake has one less drunk.

In Steve Allen’s singularly honest autobiographical comedy/drama “The Wake,” at An Claidheamh Soluis, the Scanlon men and their friends manage to scrape together a few pennies for a wee drop here and there, and sisters Rose and Belle aren’t shy about joining in.

But there are a few sober folks--sister Maggie just doesn’t imbibe, sister Josie is obsessed against it. Ten-year-old Davy, Belle’s boy, who’s deposited with Maggie while Belle tours in vaudeville, looks on it all with a sort of pitiful resignation, firmly believing that this time Mama Belle will take him with her.

At this 1931 wake in Chicago, Davy is the Allen figure, an icon of young despair keeping afloat in rough seas, forever expecting the sight of land on the horizon. The problem with the Scanlons, as journalist uncle Jack (Peter Nicholson) says: “We have no gift for love.” Though he doesn’t understand, Davy is very aware. “Why can’t people I love,” he asks, “love each other?”

On the surface, as they filter into our consciousness, the Scanlons seem much like most families, or is it that most families are as accomplished as the Scanlons at denying their pain? Grandma Bridget, lying in a casket in the living room, refused to return to Ireland with her brutish husband 25 years earlier, and their children understand why. He left a legacy, though, and the whole family has never recovered from it. They delight in opening old sores, unable to forgive, driving wedges into what family relationships they have, blaming one another for their own anger.

The central figure, of course, is Belle, addicted to “the show business” and the money it provides, self-centered enough to generally dismiss her guilt over Davy. Anne Gee Byrd is luminous as Belle, the good-time girl fighting for some dignity in a man’s world. There is one special scene that glows with her insight, as Belle puts Davy to sleep with the details of his father’s death. No histrionics here, just honesty and a wrenching rare moment of closeness between mother and son.

Robert Hana is excellent as Davy, with an appealing depth for so young an actor, who also has good moments with the warm, Rock of Gibraltar Peggy Miley as Aunt Maggie. Nicholson’s roving uncle is on target, as is the blustering, volatile Uncle Mike of Paul Jenkins. Eileen Wilkinson is a tightly wound spring as Josie, the unhappiest of the Scanlons, and Lynn Ann Leveridge provides Rose with rich shading and brash tones.

Patricia Quinn’s direction at first seems fairly relaxed, but she’s only setting us up for her gradual build to the play’s final shattering moments. Quinn wants us to know the Scanlons’ world, and she gives us the time to do it.

Mike Pearce’s set and lighting are exemplary, giving the feeling one could walk into the Scanlon apartment and live there. There’s a feeling of a home that has seen much pain but also has heard some laughter. And the Scanlons can laugh. They’re Irish, and Allen remembers that, too.

“The Wake,” An Claidheamh Soluis, Celtic Arts Center, 5651 Hollywood. Fridays-Saturdays, 8 p.m.; Sundays, 2 p.m. Ends May 31. $12; (213) 660-8587, (213) 462-6844. Running time: 2 hours, 35 minutes.