STAGE REVIEW : Irish Performer Brings Roaring ‘Behan’ Alive

Brendan Behan materializes in rumpled clothes, sitting in front of a manual typewriter, wads of prose-covered paper scattered on the floor around him. For two hours, a roaring Irish playwright and his language--ranting, bawdy, tender, anguished words--become totally integrated in the persona of actor Michael Kavanagh.

This one-man production, masterfully directed by Dick Woody and the maiden show at the new Jimson Theatre, is not a mere portrait. There’s nothing external about it except for the Guinness stout and the cigarettes.

Kavanagh, a native Dubliner who adapted the material from the writings of Behan, has the shaggy bulk, the brogue, and the Irish soul and heart of his subject.

In the mid-’70s another Irish actor, Shay Duffin, performed his solo “Brendan Behan” in several Hollywood theaters and was loudly praised for his work.

Kavanagh necessarily deals with much the same autobiographical material--the playwright’s childhood, his IRA escapades, jailings, jaunty struggling literary days in Paris, his renown and ultimate deterioration.

Kavanagh’s performance doesn’t try for the leprechaun touch in Duffin’s Behan but rather fills the stage with the rage and outsized and even dangerous (as in self-destructive) spirit of the mad, magical Irishman.

With mercurial dispatch, Kavanaugh segues from Behan to scores of other characters in the writer’s life. He plays Behan’s parents, his jailers, his friends. Kavanagh (as Behan himself was adept at doing) jumps into the personalities of these supporting players with captivating relish and wit.

Performances are at 1047 N. Havenhurst, West Hollywood, Thursday through Sunday, 8 p.m., Sunday matinee, 3 p.m., through July 24. Tickets: $10. (213) 466-1767.