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Molly Sweeney
OC WEEKLY Molly has been functionally blind since childhood. But the disability doesn’t seem to impair her. She seems to have adapted, developing remarkable insight into the nature of people around her. One of those people is Frank (Tom Turnley), Molly’s husband and a great one for causes. Frank gets it in his head that Molly (Jill Cary Martin) can be cured. As it happens, Mr. Rice (Jack Reule), a leading eye surgeon at one time, has come to live in Ballybeg. A drunk who has fallen from professional grace, Rice is dubious at first, but he eventually comes to see Molly’s case as an opportunity to redeem himself. Therein lie the seeds of tragedy in Brian Friel’s "Molly Sweeney". Rice and Frank have a lot riding on Molly’s case, but neither stops to consider the effect their ambitions may have on her. In an especially powerful moment, the night before the surgery, Martin expertly captures Molly’s terror at the prospect that regaining her sight might make her lose the special knowledge of the world that sightlessness allows her. The success of any production of "Molly Sweeney" rests on the storytelling abilities of its actors. This production is anchored by Martin’s beautifully nuanced performance. Her Molly starts out as a woman perfectly comfortable with herself and her world; if anything, Molly’s blindness is a sort of blessing, allowing her to overlook some of life’s uglier truths. Her post-surgical decline is painful and haunting. Turnley nails
Frank’s ebullience, finding great charm in a character who could
come off as an ass. ...Director David Colwell’s simple staging makes
excellent use of the Chance Theater’s intimacy, which underscores
the intimate nature of this play...
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NORTHERN LIGHTS They say that "the eyes are the windows to the soul." In "Molly Sweeney," award-winning writer Brian Friel has a somewhat different take on that statement. "Molly Sweeney" is a bitter-sweet story about a 41-year-old Irish woman, who has been blind since the age of 10 months. Happily married to her husband Frank, Molly has built a world for herself that is comfortable, pleasurable and safe. In this world - visually consisting only of light and shadow - Molly luxuriates in her other senses. The smell of a Baby Blue-Eye flower, the sound of her favorite popular radio program, or a swim in the ocean become sensual delights. Even her job is tactile - She is employed as a massage therapist, at the local health spa. Molly is confident, self-sufficient and, most of all, she is happy. Frank Sweeney - the first man to tell Molly she is beautiful - is a good-hearted schemer and a fanciful, unemployed dreamer. He loves Molly and wants only the best for her. When he hears of Mr. Rice -an ophthalmologist who might be able to cure Molly of her blindness - he jumps at the chance for her operation. After all, "Molly has nothing to lose!" Or does she? The result of the operation is that Molly becomes partially sighted. She can distinguish color, movement, and blurry faces. It's a brand new world, filled with brand new challenges - exciting at first, then increasingly scary. In "Molly Sweeney," as presented at The Chance Theater in Anaheim Hills, we soon learn that "seeing" and "understanding" are not necessarily the same things. Each of the three characters in the play are on stage at all times, though they never speak to each other. Delivered to the audience in a series of lengthy monologues, each reveals another piece of the puzzle that is Molly's life. Jill Cary Martin, as Molly, proves again to be one of the most delicate and talented actors in Orange County. Avoiding the spacey-eyed stare of the less gifted, Martin projects an intense gleam in her eyes that is the light of inner peace. Her Irish accent is right on the money and, as she tells her many stories, she also acts out each part in a new character's authentic voice. Her body language is subtle and there is no bumping into the furniture. She makes us believe that Molly has adapted well. Martin is confident and Molly seems just as confident. A brief touch to locate a chair or a toe tap, to find a step, are the only outward manifestations of her blindness. And, Martin handles the long, meaningful monologues with style and grace. She is compelling. As Molly, we are drawn into her world and, as an actress, Martin demonstrates what a "pro's pro" can do, when she's at the top of her game. Tom Turnley, plays Frank with great enthusiasm. The character - half a bubble off plumb - never considers the ramifications of what Molly's new life would be, after regaining her sight. Turnley is sympathetic and humorous. His lines - delivered as a series of zig-zag asides - eventually return to complete his thoughts. He was thoroughly engaging. Paddy Rice, played by Jack Reule, was once the fourth out of the top four ophthalmologists. He is down on his luck - whiskey breath at 10 AM - and hopes to regain his once prominent stature by "curing" Molly. Eventually he realizes that, after all, she had "everything to lose!" Reule's best work was done in recounting his heart-break over his wife who left him. The first-rate acting of Martin,
Turnley and Reule, along with the fine direction of David Colwell, make
"Molly Sweeney" and evening to remember. Lighting Design, by
Casey Long; Sets, by Joseph Horn; and Sound, by Ron Wyand add context
to Friel's haunting words. Molly gradually loses her sight again, but
is never bitter. As with many "loving gestures," there are no
"happy endings," for Molly, who offers us a glimpse at what
it means to truly be content. She forgives all involved for "helping"
her, as the light gradually dims. "Molly Sweeney" is a powerful,
realistic and thought-provoking play, proving that the soul endures all
and that the eyes are its windows, even if the shades are drawn!
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ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER If a person has been blind since infancy, what happens when sight is restored? The surprising answer lies in Brian Friel's elegant drama "Molly Sweeney." The Irish-born playwright used his 1994 play to explore the emotional and psychological impact of advanced ophthalmological operations on a 42-year-old woman who had been blind since infancy. Though Friel researched, and was inspired by, the writings of Dr. Oliver Sacks (better known as the subject of the Robert De Niro film "Awakenings"), the play's characters are of his creation. A new staging at the Chance Theater in Anaheim Hills gives local audiences a chance to experience Friel's poetic approach to his subject. Though often whimsical and wry, "Molly Sweeney" is far less colorful and literary than Friel's "Dancing at Lughnasa." The play's formal structure is a series of monologues by three characters: Molly Sweeney (Jill Cary Martin); her husband, Frank Sweeney (Tom Turnley); and Mr. Rice (Jack Reule), the American ophthalmologist who agrees to try to restore Molly's sight. As each character addresses us and provides more information, we begin to see more and more that "Molly Sweeney" is a character study - not just of its main subject but also of Frank and Mr. Rice. All three are distinct bodies in motion, and as they collide, each affects the other. Molly and Frank offer each other the chance to live like their married friends. Mr. Rice, we soon learn, seeks both personal and professional redemption. When Frank brings Molly to him and is convinced her sight can be restored, Rice sees his chance. Director David Colwell and his production team have wrought a staging that honors the text's emotional complexities. Their focal point, of course, is Martin's portrait of Molly, the latest in a long line of tour-de-force performances for the local actress but her first at the Chance. With her quiet but spirited voice, she tells us everything we need to know about Molly in the opening scene, when Molly describes how her father taught her, as a child, to "see" the world around her using her other senses. Also a clue to Molly's character - and to "Molly Sweeney" - is something her father confided to her regarding her blindness: "Trust me: You're not missing much." Martin fully realizes Molly's energy and enthusiasm, her passion for life and her love of the close circle of friends and oddballs around her. And though we never meet these others, we meet them through Molly's (and Martin's) dead- on impersonations of them, an obvious skill for a woman who perceives people largely through their voices. Nor does Martin miss the role's rich poetry and sad ironies, all in a lilting Irish accent. Though he and Martin never play a single scene face to face, Turnley's Frank Sweeney is as unforgettable a character. Frank's a bubbly, eccentric dilettante given to taking up world causes, usually on a whim. Like Martin, Turnley has every lilt of the Irish sound down pat in his bright, singsong delivery, and his quizzical countenance and cheerful eyes belie Frank's own special "blindness": For all his good intentions, he can't really see how integral Molly's blindness is to her place in the world. As Rice (he's never referred to as "doctor"), Reule comes off more as a laconic Midwesterner, out of place in the United Kingdom, than the coldly impersonal yet brilliant medical man of the script. He suffices in the role without mastering its subtleties. Friel has turned a case study into a moving tale of how
each person, in his own way, perceives and processes information. Aptly,
the sound effects - the chirping of birds, voices singing or arguing,
a sad fiddle lament - help paint the world as Molly Sweeney knows it.
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WALLFOUR.COM The story of Molly Sweeny is not only a serious one, but one that is thought provoking at its roots. Staged, it will force any viewer to empathize with the plight of her life as she struggles in learning to live with sight, and discarding the blind existence she had been accustomed to. On stage, the character of Molly is joined by two other characters: her husband Frank and Mr. Rice, the doctor who restores Molly's sight. The life stories of these two characters are likewise examined deeply enough to make either one an appropriate title character on their own. ...Colwell has brought together a trio who not only understood their characters, but gave a concerted effort to develop them into roles that came off as genuine and personal. As the title character, Jill Cary Martin delivers an outstanding performance. At every point in her character's emotional range, Martin was alive, so that even in despair she is electric. And the accent, don't forget the accent...Orange County has never felt so Irish. Tom Turnley played the role of Frank Sweeny, whose performance brought most, if not all, of the laughter to the audience. Don't underestimate what some people call comic relief, in some shows it is worth a whole lot. His studied anecdotes that at first seem trivial bring a witty playfulness to the show, and is rewarded in full as they unfold into relevance. Although Turnley's performance is certainly enthusiastic, his character eventually seems undermined by the drawn out nature of the script, making his character development border on tiresome. The character of Mr. Rice seemed the most surprising
in its development. Played by Jack Reule, Rice internally moves to levels
that were definitely unexpected. His character is interesting because
much of his development is done through subtext; the success of his role
coming from the delicate way in which he allows himself to unfold. The
character seemed to move with ease for Reule, yet at times it would seem
that an accent would come into play and then vanish, making the identity
of Rice questionable...
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AOL DIGITAL CITY Loosely based upon the work of Dr. Oliver Sachs, Brian
Friel's acclaimed play 'Molly Sweeney' concerns a young woman who regains
her sight with the help of a special operation. The source material was
the basis for a truly rotten film ('At First Sight'), but Friel's award-winning
work takes a deeper look at the premise than the pedestrian Hollywood
version. Friel ('Dancing at Lughnasa') offers the tale as a series of
monologues, with each of the three characters (Molly, her husband, and
the doctor) coming to terms with the evolving situation in their respective
ways. David Colwell directs the cast of Jill Cary Martin, Tom Turnley
and Jack Reule.
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