A BEHANDING IN SPOKANE A REVUE

The talented Irish playwright Martin McDonagh has always been well recieved in this country. I have attended most of his plays that have transferred to Broadway,and in efforts like "The Beauty Queen Of Leenane" and The Lieutenant Of Inishmore" he has created characters that speak beautiful words and are good if sometimes nontraditional people. While all of his previous works have come from his native country, his latest A BEHANDING IN SPOKANE was written here with Broadway its main destination, and its arrival was regarded as a major event of the spring theatre season.
Unfortunatly my inability to like or appreciate almost anything in this tale of a bitter down and outer who lost his hand in a fight some 47 years ago grew almost nightmarish. I thought it had the most unpleasant characters and situations I have seen in years,and its lack of even a touch of real acceptable human behavior made this a rather depressing evening for this longtime fan of not only Mr McDonagh,but of Irish theatre in general.
This is to bad because John Crowley has staged the show beautifully, and the cast of four are outstanding. Christopher Walken, Sam Rockwell, Anthony Mackie and Zoe Kazan play together with such precision and skill that they are a joy to watch even though they are playing characters that are totally unreal and unpleasant, and Scott Pasks' scenery and costumes do their job effectivly and well.
I might add that many in the audience I saw it with found the show to be a real hoot,but I found A BEHANDING IN SPOKANE to be loopy, droopy, and dopy.
At THE GERALD SCHOENFELD THEATRE 236 WEST 45th STREET N.Y.C.