A Prayer for Owen Meany

One of the great tragedies of humankind is that religion has hijacked spirituality, miracles, and awe from everyday experience and set it upon an idolatrous pedestal to be worshipped from afar under the control of pedants, functionaries, and apologists for the status quo.

Leave it to literature to provide an alternative. As the Peruvian novelist Mario Vargas Llosa said not long ago, "I don't think there is a great fiction that is not an essential contradiction of the world as it is. This is the great contribution of the novel to human progress. You know, the Inquisition forbade the novel for 300 years in Latin America. I think they understood very well the seditious consequence that fiction can have on the human psyche."

(L to R) Michael Wartella as Owen Meany and David Ivers as John Wheelwright Photo: Terry Shapiro

In this case, we are speaking of John Irving's bestseller, A Prayer for Owen Meany, adapted in 2002 by Simon Bent for the National Theatre in London and now running at the Denver Center Theatre Company's Stage Theatre. As Irving noted in a recent interview, he began the story by asking himself, "What would it take to make a believer out of me?" The play's answer is the experience Johnny Wheelwright (David Ivers) has with his best friend, Owen Meany (Michael Wartella), whose life demonstrates how miracles occur everyday, in the most common of circumstances to everyday people.

(L to R) James Michael Reilly as Dan Needham and Kathleen McCall as Tabitha Wheelwright Photo: Terry Shapiro

The complexity of the story, with its asynchronous intersecting subplots coupled with an extended timeline and epic sweep, present impressive challenges that are met at every turn by director Bruce K. Sevy and his talented design team, leveraging the script's cross-hatching opportunities into a series of magical moments.

Excellent voice work by Ivers and Wartella (coached by Hillary Blair) and their easy-going camaraderie are key factors in our suspension of belief as the character's age from adolescents to young adults, with illusion-supporting boosts from a group of National Theatre Conservatory actors as their classmates, as well as clever costuming (Bill Black) and scenic design (William Bloodgood).

Gordana Rashovich as Mrs. Meany and Mike Hartman as Mr. Meany Photo: Terry Shapiro

All the company regulars have a hand in adding to the witty repartee, philosophical commentary, memorable characterizations, and situational comedy that Bent culls from Irving's rich story. Kathleen McCall's brings a refreshing youthful innocence to Tabitha Wheelwright, John's mother, setting up light-hearted friction with her mother Harriet, a dry-witted, curmudgeonly, but gold-hearted Jeanne Paulsen. The Wheelwright menagerie is topped off by Lydia, their former maid, whose stinging rebukes in the hands of Kathleen Brady cut to the core.

Mike Hartman and Gordana Rashovich as Mr. and Mrs. Meany, Owen's parents, are testy and delusional, respectively, yet never more than a quip away from a laugh out loud caricature of New Hampshire stone quarry as American Gothic.

(L to R) Cheryl Lynn Bowers as Barb Wiggins, Sam Gregory as Rector Wiggins and Kathleen M. Brady as Lydia Photo: Terry Shapiro

Sevy's casting not only enhances at every turn, but mines a variety of insider references to previous DCTC productions. Sam Gregory (Father Flynn in Doubt) and John Hutton (Reverend Lionel Espy in Racing Demon) are Rector Wiggins and Reverend Merrill, respectively, adding bite to Irving's ecumenical barbs. Philip Pleasants' (Ebenezer Scrooge in A Christmas Carol) send up of a community theatre Scrooge is a crack up.

Having impressively met production challenges where few beside the National Theatre have dared to tread, the DCTC should consider the National's panoramic War Horse, which the famed British company was forced to reprise by popular demand.

The Denver Center Theatre Company's production of Simon Bent's adapation of John Irving's novel A Prayer for Owen Meany, directed by Bruce K. Sevy, runs through April 25th. 303-893-4100 or denvercenter.org.

Bob Bows