Let's Go to the Theater

Is a life forever cast in stone due to actions taken at a young age? The Mountains Look Different attempts to answer that question. The results are a little hard to take as they are not as positive as one would want them to be. But perhaps reflecting back to a time when women had little mobility in society shows that it was a difficult if not an impossible thing to do.

The play The Mountains Look Different is the Mint Theatre Company’s most recent offering. It first ran in Dublin in 1948 when the playwright Micheál mac Liammóir played the role of Tom. It caused a bit of news as several members of the audience left at intermission and attempted to stir up the rest of the crowd to also leave. They didn’t but the newspapers got wind of it and still gave it pretty good reviews.

According to press notes, the idea for The Mountains Look Different came to mac Liammóir after working on Eugene O’Neill’s Anna Christie. He wondered what happened to Anna after the curtain came down: “I saw many plays over the years whose subject matter was young women who sold their bodies in order to live, and the end of every one of the plays was that the unfortunate woman married some simple innocent man who fell in love with her. But the curtain always came down before any of us in the audience knew anything about the life that was ahead of the couple.” That is where the story begins in this play.

A Good, Solid Story is Told

Bairbre is anxious to start a new life with her husband of three days, Tom. Her life in Dublin as a prostitute was a difficult one, but one that Tom does not know about. She happily comes to live in Tom’s father’s home in a rural part of Ireland. The couple arrive on a night of the celebration where bonfires are lit to celebrate St. John’s Eve. The set design does not include any sightings of these bonfires. However, there is discussion about them glowing in the distance. This adds a bit of an eerie feeling to as the story unfolds and it adds to the action in a subtle way.

Right before the newly married couple arrive, Bairbre’s uncle visits Martin Grealish to let him know of their arrival. He mentions that his niece had a good job running a hotel in Dublin but has no qualms about giving it up to live on the farm. It is only after Martin meets Bairbre that pieces fall in place.

Is it fate or is it bad luck that Tom’s father, Martin, remembers her from a years back. Although she cannot remember him, the memory of her is distinct in his mind. He knows she was a prostitute. He was one of her customers the one time he left his farm to go into Dublin. It was shortly after his wife’s death and he needed female companionship. What are the chances this might happen? That is impossible to even guess. It is an essential piece of the plot because it dramatizes the difficulty any woman would have in trying to establish a new and better life for herself.

he attempts to get his son to end the marriage. Oddly, Tom and Bairbre still haven’t consummated the marriage of three days yet. So it would be possible to do. But Tom is in love with her and doesn’t want to do it.

The remainder of the play needs to be seen in order to see how well the rest of the story unfolds. There are difficult encounters between Baribre and Martin but tender moments between her and Tom. The arrival of neighbors also brings in some interesting aspects to the play. However, the lengths Bairbre goes to in order to start anew are quite surprising. This, too, is something playgoers will relish watching unfold. And one is left with questions at the end about what was really in everyone’s heart, especially Bairbre’s.

The story is easy to follow; but the ideas behind it are rough to watch. The challenge facing a woman with a sordid past like Baribre is rarely explored. Would the same fate await her in today’s society? That’s for viewers to decide after seeing The Mountains Look Different.

Director and Cast

Aidan Redmond provides solid direction for this play. The inclusion of cultural references, use of dialect, and even some music and dance that is performed bring out an Irish theme to the play. However, it is not overdone and that shows how universal the topic of women attempting to change their stature in life truly is.

The fine cast includes Ciaran Byrne, Liam Forde, McKenna Harrington, Con Horgan, Cynthia Mace, Daniel Marconi, Brenda Meaney, Paul O’Brien, and Jesse Pennington.

Additional Information

Performances for The Mountains Look Different run Tuesday, Thursday through Saturday evenings at 7:30pm with matinees Wednesday, Saturday & Sunday at 2pm.  All performances take place at Theater Row, 410 West 42nd Street, New York City.

Tickets can be purchased online at Telecharge.com, by phone at 212-239-6200 or in person at the Theatre Row Box Office.  

Consult the Mint Theatre website, minttheater.org, for more information.

The Mountains Look Different runs through July 14, 2019.