You'll Never Get Out Alive: 'Made in China'

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MARK O'ROWE'S darkly comic "Made in China" tells the story of three Irishmen and their aspirations to transcend their poor neighborhood.

Hughie (Danny Gavigan) and Kilby (Joel Reuben Ganz) are small-time thugs working for a local mobster, but Hughie has begun to sympathize with their simpleton friend Paddy (Dan Brick).

As directed by Colin Hovde in the play's U.S. premiere, the seismic shifts in their relationships play out in the confines of Hughie's apartment, and their confrontations possess an unsettling jumpiness, each exchange promising violence.

Gavigan plays Hughie with a faltering righteousness, while Ganz perfects a preening swagger as the fittingly named Kilby. But it's Paddy who is the sad soul of the story: Brick imbues his role with a lively inner life, registering tension with his big eyes and round face. That his naivete masks not a good heart but just more desperate aspirations is the play's ultimate tragedy and Brick's finest accomplishment.

The scenes among the actors are all the more intense for being set in an odd space — an enormous box in the middle of the theater that holds one room in Hughie's apartment. The audience looks in on the action through windows in the walls, giving each seat a unique perspective. The effect is like watching the play in widescreen, which is appropriate since O'Rowe draws as much from action movies as from Irish theater.

"Made in China" will appeal to fans of Tarantino as well as fans of Beckett.

» Atlas Performing Arts Center, 1333 H St. NE; through Nov. 4; $20; 800-494-8497.

Written by Express contributor Stephen M. Deusner
Photo by C. Stanley Photography