“A Man of No Importance” bets on emotional payoff, wins with restraint

“I am the love that dare not speak its name.”
                         –Alfred Douglas, from “Two Loves”

When Douglas published these words in 1894 as a thinly-veiled cryptonym for homosexuality, he wasn’t exaggerating. Just one year later, his lover, Oscar Wilde, was sentenced to two years imprisonment with hard labor for the “gross indecency” that Victorian England considered being gay.

Nearly 70 years on, with the same laws pertaining, middle-aged Alfie (Clayton Nemrow) lives a quiet Dublin life, peacefully cohabiting with his elder sister (Emily Morgan). He’s content with his job as a bus conductor, sharing his love of verse with his route’s regulars and Robbie (Charlie Carlos), the young, handsome driver. His passion is his amateur theatre troupe, which perseveres at a local church despite the small-mindedness of sententious authorities. But there’s a sense in which Alfie hasn’t even begun to live, a sorrow he does not dare share with another living soul.

Even if A Man of No Importance weren’t both explicit and literal in its evocation of Oscar Wilde — his spirit (imagined or otherwise; embodied with sufficient trenchancy by Mark Wheeler) visits Alfie several times — we know right off where the story is heading. But when it comes to musicals, you don’t need a lot from the plot if the music brings the emotion. Although Steven Flaherty may not have delivered any truly standout tunes, coupled with Lynn Ahrens on-the-nose yet spot-on lyrics, there’s more than enough in the melody department to make us misty. 

While now and again the cast lays it on a bit thick in the comedic moments, there’s very little treacle in sentimental stuff. The Irish of the early ‘60s were hardly the most demonstrative of folk, and director Megan O’Toole has everyone playing it close to the vest, to excellent effect. 

Nowhere is this truer than with Nemrow, whose restraint is perfectly in keeping with Alfie’s particularly straitened personality. It’s a choice that pays huge emotional dividends. Take “Confessions”, where Alfie — not quite a lapsed Catholic — comes ever so close to unburdening himself to kindly Father Kenny (Doug Emslie). “There’s one other thing you ought to know,” he sings, “I’ve been trying to find the words….” But he doesn’t, he can’t, and he leaves the confessional more lonesome than ever. By not emoting Alfie’s isolation even in his lowest moments, we feel it all the more. 

Music director Curtis Heard’s skeleton crew more than capably generate warm, woodsy colors (accordion, fiddle, cello, mandolin) perfectly in keeping with the soul of Flaherty’s songcraft. The fact that the music emanates from onstage rather than the basement (the usual spot) certainly doesn’t hurt on this front.

Although the mild meta conceit that frames the play doesn’t make much sense, it’s easily dismissed, as is the fact that we don’t need to hear quite so often so many variations on “there’s no fault in loving,” that we all should get to “love who you love,” etc. And if the feel-good finale is fairly predictable, it’s nonetheless moving for that. We certainly want it, and it works because the emotional payoff it seeks is well earned. 

Long Beach Landmark Theatre Company’s A Man of No Importance is a satisfying show that gets a little extra juice from the fact that it’s playing in a house of worship, the sort of institution that, until relatively recently in the history of our sad little world, universally condemned people who love like Alfie. How sad it is that so much of the world is still benighted. How joyful it is to live — and see theatre — in one little corner that’s seen the light.

A Man of No Importance at Long Beach Landmark Theatre Company

Times: Fri–Sat 7:30pm, Sun 7pm (except no show Oct. 31)
The show runs through November 1.
Cost: $30–$60
Details: (562) 856-1999, lblandmark.org
Venue: First Congregational Church of Long Beach (241 Cedar Ave., Long Beach)