Theater review by Raven Snook
The Irish writer-performer Mary Kate O Flanagan calls storytelling her religion, and her life-affirming solo performance Making a Show of Myself is sure to win her some acolytes. A screenwriter and script editor by trade, O Flanagan was inspired to spin her own yarns by the storytelling group the Moth, under whose auspices she has become the only person to win GrandSLAM Moth championships on two continents. On a bare stage against a dark curtain, clothed in a casual black ensemble that offsets her unruly red curls, O Flanagan recounts true tales from her life with an openness and intimacy that invites the audience to lean in and listen.
Making a Show of Myself | Photograph: Courtesy Carol Rosegg
The six smartly chosen anecdotes that make up the show vary in length, tone and subject matter: dating, coming of age, human connection, death. Together they conjure an amusing and moving portrait of the artist and her tight-knit family. The sections about how her mother and, later, O Flanagan herself helped strangers in need are especially poignant; they serve as uplifting reminders of the power of compassion in times of oppression and violence.
In deference to the oral tradition, and to keep her tales flexible and fresh, O Flanagan has not made her stories into a set script, which surely presented a challenge for Will O'Connell, her director and dramaturg. O’Connell has given O Flanagan a bit of blocking, especially during brief interstitial sequences when she breaks down the art of storytelling before launching into her next verbal adventures; mostly though, he seems to have encouraged her to be her authentic, eloquent, amiable self. O Flanagan may not commit her meticulous words to the page, but her performance of them speaks volumes.
Making a Show of Myself. Irish Repertory Theatre (Off Broadway). By Mary Kate O Flanagan. Directed by Will O'Connell. With O Flanagan. Running time: 1hr 15min. No intermission.
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Making a Show of Myself | Photograph: Courtesy Carol Rosegg
