‘James X’ puts a face on abuse
Ireland --
“James X” is portrayed on a very spartan stage: a simple wooden bench, a few simple signs on the wall and the ironically glorious and golden seal of the Republic of Ireland mounted high upon the wall.
This is a one person play; not a one man show because, as Mannix Flynn puts it, the play is representative of the collective experience of all those who suffered in the industrial schools, both male and female. This is not his story exclusively; he is not a victim, nor is he a survivor; he is merely sharing the collective story in which he has had a part.
As the play begins, James X enters to wait for a court hearing to redress his past in the industrial schools. As he waits, James begins a monologue with God, at first imploring for help, asking God, “Help me feel, help me remember what I don’t want to remember. Help me relive what I don’t want to relive.”
James narrates through his life, beginning at conception. Throughout the play, he repeatedly employs a stream of consciousness method of prose. This literary technique is often hit or miss in its delivery, but Mannix Flynn executes perfectly. Far from a dry monologue, his tone as well as his overall demeanor rise and fall with his narration.
The life of James X can best be summarized as tragedy after tragedy. His parents always fought, he was ostracized by his peers, and he turned to crime. Repeatedly, James is sent to industrial schools and prisons to ‘reform’ him.
Instead of reformation, he suffers terribly at the hands of the brothers who ran the schools: “Forever winter and I curse those Christians who called themselves brothers, whose loving embrace was a slap in the face and the kiss of a leather strap.” He was raped orally and anally, and he was beaten. He lived in constant fear.
Mannix Flynn often gives facial expressions showing deep pain, and at several points he curls onto the floor or hides behind the bench as he narrates the most traumatizing parts of James X’s life.
Read the article at Xu.edu Dated April 20, 2005
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“James X” is portrayed on a very spartan stage: a simple wooden bench, a few simple signs on the wall and the ironically glorious and golden seal of the Republic of Ireland mounted high upon the wall.
This is a one person play; not a one man show because, as Mannix Flynn puts it, the play is representative of the collective experience of all those who suffered in the industrial schools, both male and female. This is not his story exclusively; he is not a victim, nor is he a survivor; he is merely sharing the collective story in which he has had a part.
As the play begins, James X enters to wait for a court hearing to redress his past in the industrial schools. As he waits, James begins a monologue with God, at first imploring for help, asking God, “Help me feel, help me remember what I don’t want to remember. Help me relive what I don’t want to relive.”
James narrates through his life, beginning at conception. Throughout the play, he repeatedly employs a stream of consciousness method of prose. This literary technique is often hit or miss in its delivery, but Mannix Flynn executes perfectly. Far from a dry monologue, his tone as well as his overall demeanor rise and fall with his narration.
The life of James X can best be summarized as tragedy after tragedy. His parents always fought, he was ostracized by his peers, and he turned to crime. Repeatedly, James is sent to industrial schools and prisons to ‘reform’ him.
Instead of reformation, he suffers terribly at the hands of the brothers who ran the schools: “Forever winter and I curse those Christians who called themselves brothers, whose loving embrace was a slap in the face and the kiss of a leather strap.” He was raped orally and anally, and he was beaten. He lived in constant fear.
Mannix Flynn often gives facial expressions showing deep pain, and at several points he curls onto the floor or hides behind the bench as he narrates the most traumatizing parts of James X’s life.
Read the article at Xu.edu Dated April 20, 2005
posted by God Almighty Himself at 4:17 AM
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