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'Gaslight' is serious fun

By Matt Windman | amNewYork Theater Critic

6:26 PM EDT, May 24, 2007

The plot of "Gaslight" is pretty simple to follow. Based on George Cukor's 1944 film of the same title, it concerns a conniving husband and a young, fragile wife in 1880 London. The husband convinces the wife that she is going mad and must be locked away. Next, a detective informs her that he is tricking her in order to steal some sort of jewels. In Act Two, we watch the action play out.

The real challenge of "Gaslight" is figuring out its genre. Technically, it's an old-fashioned drawing-room melodrama, where the characters are broadly developed (the innocent, naïve woman versus the cruel, cold-hearted villain) and the story is out of proportion. In the end, the police show up, the bad guy is locked away, and all is right in the world.

At first, it's not clear whether Irish Repertory director Charlotte Moore intended for us to take the play seriously. After all, we tend to use the word "melodrama" in a strictly negative sense nowadays, almost as a synonym for bad theater. Should we laugh it all away as a bizarre form of campy comedy?

Moore foresaw the issue and created a successful solution: Her actors take the plot semi-seriously. Though they do not treat it as a piece of naturalist drama. She leaves it up to the audience to decide if they want to accept the play as a thriller or a hopelessly antiquated piece of camp.

Chances are that you will switch back and forth between taking "Gaslight" seriously and laughing at it. But in spite of its puzzling dramatic conventions, "Gaslight" is a seriously fun dose of summertime drama. Particularly wonderful is Brian Murray's performance as the pot-bellied, straight-whiskered police inspector who arrives to bring poor, hysterical Bella Manningham the surprising reality of her situation.

Irish Repertory Theatre, 132 West 22nd St, 212-727-2737, $55-60. Tues 8pm, Wed 3 & 8pm, Thurs-Fri 8pm, Sat 3 & 8pm, Sun 3pm. Thru July 8.