[caption id="attachment_68400" align="aligncenter" width="600" caption="Gerard Mannix Flynn."]
"James X" • Written & Performed By Gerard Mannix Flynn • Directed by Gabriel Byrne • Produced by Gabriel Byrne And Liam Neeson •Culture Project 45 Bleecker •Run extended beyond Dec. 18
When Gabriel Byrne and Liam Neeson decided to bring Gerard Mannix Flynn's one man sbow, "James X," to New York, its unlikely they were fully aware of the topicality the play brought with it.
Flynn's 90-minute, intermissionless monologue, once it declares its intentions openly, deals with sexual abuse of children, particularly of young boys, which puts it in a direct line with several stories dominating much of today's news.
As he tells his painful tale, the author, a moderately well known actor in his native Ireland, but virtually unknown here, makes it clear that his audience knows from the start that every fact and every detail is absolutely true.
A solidly constructed man of perhaps 60, Flynn makes excellent physical use of the Culture Project stage at 45 Bleecker Street, where "James X" has just had its run extended beyond Dec.18, which was originally scheduled to be its closing date.
Flynn's manner is candid and somewhat casual. He speaks rapidly, which at times obscures what he is saying.
Apparently, after the first press preview, he slowed down sufficiently to be heard and understood. His altered pace added almost 10 minutes, according to his producer's assistant, to his show's running time.
His text covers a great deal of material and wanders a fair bit, as he moves through he events of his life, plus a good many random subjects which, at least on a single hearing, have little or nothing to do with his own experiences.
Over the course of the last couple of theatrical seasons, an audience member might easily be forgiven for feeling at least a measure of fatigue where solo shows are concerned.
They do tend to run together and blur after a spectator has been exposed to a certain number of them in a limited period of time.
On one level, Flynn's play is an indictment of the "most horrendous industrial and reform schools" maintained by the Irish government.
"The effects of abuse," Flynn writes, "are dynamic and interact with each other." As forms of mistreatment often encountered, he lists "sexual abuse, physical abuse, emotional abuse, and neglect."
Flynn maintains that the "experiences and adaptations children make as a consequence of abuse become part of their overall development process, shaping their view of the world and themselves."
Trauma, he feels, may also affect an adult in what he calls "the long-term." The effects of this, he feels, "may become an intrinsic part of the adult's psychological functioning. Thus, the coping mechanisms adopted by a abused children may significantly influence their behavioral, emotional and psychological well-being as adults."
There is a certain amount of confusion in Flynn's material, or perhaps in the manner in which he presents it. Just when the audience seems to be getting comfortable identifying him with the things about which he is speaking, he identifies himelf as "James O'Neill."
He is, in a sense, portraying a character who is only partly himself. To put it another way, everyone who has ever undergone these, or similar, experiences, becomes, in a sense, "James X."
