BWW Reviews: MCT's THE GOOD FATHER Garners Poignant Questions On Family

What constitutes being a "good" father or parent-before or after a child's conception and birth? These unexpected questions deceptively have their answers woven through Milwaukee Chamber Theatre's second selection in their 40th nniversary season when The Good Father opened at the Broadway Theatre Center this fall. Featuring actors Jonathan Wainwright and Laura Gray, Irish playwright Christian O'Reilly's complex conversational script keeps audiences smiling and thinking for two compelling acts.

C. Michael Wright adroltly directs the couple on a sparse stage set in Dublin, where two thirty something's, Jane and Tim, meet on a New Year's Eve. Bawdy conversation and perhaps too much Guiness precede Jane's "call me desperate" invitation to Tim for a one-night stand. The holiday party encounter results in Jane's unwnted pregnancy although when they met over drinks she had previously explained to Tim, "I want to be loved, to have a family, I want it all to be great."

Many people, especially some women in their thirties, would desire a family, complete with unconditional love after attaining a career as a lawyer, similar to Jane in the play. Jane's ideals reveal only a fantasy to think "everything" will be "great" surprising to hear when Jane has the wherewithal to succeed as a lawyer. Although Jane realizes her biological clock keeps ticking to have a baby, she disappoints her parents for some unclear reason and envies her friends flashing their baby pictures on Facebook while she recently was tossed over by her boyfriend of eight years, someone she thought she would marry and begin that family with.

Tim the housepainter only wishes to be "that good father," someone other than the father he knew who went AWOL in his childhood, when he replies to Jane that what matters is, "Being a good father, being there for your child, giving your life for them." Add into these comments Tim's infertility issues, which can rarely be spoken about in public or to his mates and so often becomes the bane of a women's barrenness. So Tim's health condition creates a refreshing thread in this theme of this couple's pregnancy crisis. When Jane finally reveals her pregnancy to Tim, the supposed aftermath of the wild New Year's Eve, how do these two unlikely paired human beings, now parents to be, respond?

Wainwright and Gray, partners in real life, explore Tim's and Jane's moves toward becoming parents with genuine intensity when they attempt to grow closer to each other, to create a family for their baby with marvelous affection and conviction. Accomlplished acting absolutely necessary to instill in O'Reilly's characters their worthiness to themselves, each other and their unborn child and an extreme pleasure to watch unfold on stage.

However, there's something amiss with O'Reilly's Jane, who desperately wanted what Tim generously offers, a "good father" if sometimes a "thick" man for her baby so she can finally be a mother, even though she af tfirst considers aborting the baby. The last act struggles with several plot twists, which involves more inconsistency in Jane's emotions and reactions than Tim's. Were they good parents after conceiving this baby, during the pregnancy, and why does this matter now? Only after the resultant life events occur in their lives do these two mismatched people discover the ultimate connections to what constitutes family in a poignant ending.

Perhaps these dilemmas fray the fabrics to the themes in O'Reilly's play. Being a parent on any level, good father or mother, requires dedication, heartbreak, perseverance, often clueless decision making and unforeseen conflicts for the entire life of a child. While admiring Wainwright and Gray when they answer these tough questions for Tim and Jane, the audience can ponder their own circumstances: What does this mean to give your life for your child? What qualities does a person need to be considered a worthy parent?

In MCT's contemplative and highly entertaining Good Father, one delightful answer to these questions occurs in the last moments of the play. Only when a person accepts being as open and vulnerable as Jane becomes when she sings with unadulterated charm Johnny Cash's country hit "Ring of Fire" for Tim could someone understand the wonder of living love, great lasting relationships and consequently the marvelous meaning to family. Only by sitting in MCT's audience will a person realize the sincere truth to that endearing finale.

Milwaukee Chamber Theatre presents The Good Father in the Studio Theatre at the Broadway Theatre Center through October 12. For information or tickets, please call 414.291.7800 or visit www.milwaukeechambertheatre.com

To post a comment, you must register and login.