GRITTY “SINS OF THE MOTHER”

GRITTY “SINS OF THE MOTHER”

If you believe the sins of the parents are visited upon their children, you will find common ground in the riveting Beowulf Alley Theatre production of “Sins of the Mother” by Israel Horovitz.

This ensemble performance by a quartet of men bursting with erratic testosterone motivations continues the much-welcomed comeback of the downtown theater company.

Horovitz loves the gritty side of domestic conflict, told through dialogue so tightly woven you couldn’t slip another thought in sideways. Such compact writing might be considered an acquired taste, but “Sins of the Mother” provides exactly what the title implies.

Douggie Shimmatarro (Anthony Saccocio), a guy in his 20s, comes back to his hometown of Gloucester, Mass., looking for work in a dying town of closed-up fish packing plants and grizzled stevedores who can’t find employment. It’s the Japanese, we are told, who sucked out all the jobs that closed the plants.

Bobby (Hal Melfi), Dubbah (Jim Ambrosek) and twins Frankie Verga and Philly Verga (both played by Ken Beider) are from older generations who feel their lives slipping away.

There is no place for them in this digitized world and they are damn angry about it. Filled with Luddite pride, one brags about never watching TV and refuses to buy a cell phone.

Long on canny intelligence and short on diplomacy, these are men who settle arguments with brawn. Simple and direct. The guys for whom those cable television documentaries are made that describe in detail the most dangerous jobs in the world.

Life-threatening jobs that they could do, too, if someone would just give them a chance.

Innocently Douggie steps into this den of tattered and short-tempered warriors with raw nerves, hoping to find out some history about his mom. They are only too happy to tell Douggie that his mom was rather….promiscuous. Only, the language these older men used wasn’t nearly so polite.

From there the whole conversation spirals straight down in a series of festering conflicts over long-contested disputes stretching back for decades. More violence erupts, and it isn’t even intermission.

Act Two begins with a casket in the middle of the stage. Nobody’s happy about that, either.

This production is also a showcase for some commanding new talent. Melfi, the local veteran, is back after a long absence to set the pace and hold everything together.

But Beider and Ambrosek, after lengthy theater careers in other cities, have chosen this play to make conspicuous returns to acting. The same can be said of the director, Vince Flynn.

Beider fills his character of Philly Verga with a deadly gangster charisma that no other Baked Apple actor could do. Ambrosek with a less showy role is equally convincing.

Saccocio in his 20s has little theater experience. What he has in spades is an easy charm that promises a bright future in our own theater community.

“Sins of the Mother” continues through May 27 with performances at 7:30 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays, 2:30 p.m. Sundays, at Beowulf Alley Theatre, 11 S. Sixth Ave.

Tickets are $20 general admission; $18 for seniors, teachers and military; $8 for students with current ID. For tickets and reservations, 520-882-0555, or visit www.beowulfalley.org