Is Life Worth Living?

Director Jonathan Bank has done it again: his Mint Theater presentation of the 1933 Irish play, Is Life Worth Living?, by Lennox Robinson takes an antique from its obscure shelf and gives us a delightfully entertaining drama peopled by high-level actors, all of whom bring a depth of character and a reality to their roles, on a fine expansive set by Susan Zeeman Rogers with perfect period costumes by Martha Hally, an impressive soundscape by Jane Shaw, and excellent lighting by Jeff Nellis.

The underlying theme might be the danger of negative influence by theater (Ibsen, Chekhov, Strindberg) when it is brought to a provincial Irish town by a traveling theatrical troupe. It's domestic drama with a sprinkling of humor and a touch of erudition, and the dripping rain outside the window gives the true flavor of Ireland. Even when the plot does a double reverse to conform to the morality of that time rather than a more modern feminism, there is a sense of reality, of actual people before us.

The acting is first rate, the production is totally charming and Bank's staging and timing are spot on. I heard an audience member tell her husband on the way out, "That was delicious." Taste it yourself.