Photo: Carol Rosegg
While Prisoner of the Crown, currently at the Irish Repertory Theater in New York, demonstrates some of the pitfalls of the fact-based historical play, it is ultimately a moving evocation of the trial of Sir Roger Casement, the gay Irish patriot who was hanged in England for treason in 1916.
Casement initially became famous as a member of the British diplomatic corps in Africa; his "Congo Report," which exposed Belgian atrocities, attracted worldwide attention, and he was knighted in 1911. He produced a similar report detailing miserable conditions in Peru the following year, but around this time he turned his attention to the independence struggle in his native Ireland.
After World War I broke out in the summer of 1914, he crossed enemy lines to go to Germany and get Berlin's recognition and support for an independent Ireland. He also tried to recruit a brigade from Irish prisoners of war being held there, but succeeded only in signing up three men. He was arrested almost as soon as a German U-Boat dropped him on the Irish coast in April 1916.
When he was put on trial for treason, British authorities used pages from his so-called "Black Diaries," which detail his sexual activities while abroad. Though they were not introduced at trial, their contents were disseminated and used to discredit Casement's reputation among his many supporters. (The play seems to come down on the side of those who believe that British authorities forged the raciest passages of the diaries; the question is still debated, though the consensus seems to be that they are authentic.)
The play all-too-often ends up with characters committing exposition on one another simply to bring the audience up to speed. That said, the play humanizes Casement and explores a number of the issues brought up by the trial. Particularly effective is lead actor Philip Goodwin, who plays both Casement and an undecided, probably gay juror. Irish Repertory Theater stalwart Patrick Fitzgerald seems to pop up in a different role in every scene, including the "Chorus" which frames and comments on the action; he occasionally steals the show with his vivid character portrayals.
The play cuts back and forth between the jury room deliberations, the trial itself, and events in Casement's life that led to the trial. While the play doesn't achieve the level of drama that Moises Kaufman's Gross Indecency: The Three Trials of Oscar Wilde achieved, it effectively evokes a lesser-known historical drama.
-- BRUCE SHENITZ
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