Review: A gripping 'Five Minutes of Heaven' reckons with consequences

Could this be the same Michael Egan who played the groom in the comedy "Tony 'n' Tina's Wedding" for many years at the former Hey City Theatre in Minneapolis?

If you have seen his gonzo comedy work, you're in for a surprise and a treat. Egan shows nuanced dimensions of his talent as a playwright and dramatic actor in "Five Minutes of Heaven," which premiered Friday at the Illusion Theater in Minneapolis.

Egan adapted Guy Hibbert's 2009 screenplay, which is set against the backdrop of the sectarian Protestant-Catholic violence that gripped Northern Ireland for decades and claimed the lives of some 3,700 people. He distills the film to its essence, collapsing characters, scenery and language into a punchily efficient theatricalized story about the search for redemption.

Egan now stars in director Michael Robins' streamlined production of his own play. He's a winner on both scores. His performance — ornery, agitated and ready for revenge — helps to make the show palpable and compelling.

The play is haunted by a killing during "The Troubles," as the sectarian violence was known. When Joe was 11, his older brother was shot by 17-year-old Alistair Little (Pearce Bunting), a member of the Protestant Ulster Volunteer Force. Joe's mother, who would die of heartbreak shortly after the killing, held him responsible for not "doing something."

Decades and a chain-smoking habit later, Joe struggles with the trauma that a TV station in Detroit wants to help with for the price of ratings. It seeks to set up the second-ever meeting between Alistair, who served a 12-year prison sentence for his crime, and Joe, all to be captured on film.

Robins uses a montage of archival footage to set the scene. Where the movie had a camera set-up in a castle, the stage adaptation puts the whole thing in something that could pass for a Holiday Inn lobby. The scenography is anodyne and neutral. It's what happens against it that gives the show its sparks.

Like the movie, which starred Liam Neeson as Alistair and is available on YouTube, the play does a really powerful job of transporting us into the world, and psyches, of the characters.

Alistair has become something of a celebrity in the intervening years, traveling to places with sectarian violence to give well-compensated talks. Bunting plays it with a certain cool. His Alistair understands the language of TV and show business, and is unfazed if he has to stop in the middle of an emotional moment to reset a camera angle. The actor nails a character that gives voice to being conflicted and burdened by his actions many years ago but also is practical and confident in his new life.

The cast is small — just five actors. Ansa Akyea gives gravitas and solicitousness to TV host David Frost, now an American character with a heart who, nonetheless, is laser-focused on getting his job done. Akyea's charisma and credibility soften Frost's transactional essence.

The soft edges come off Laura Esping's Michelle, a producer, pretty quickly. She only cares about the show, and Esping leans in with all her passion there — and to the detriment of any warm humanity.

In the movie, Vika is a Russian production assistant. But here, and as played by Shana Berg, she's a runner from the Midwest, someone who can be trusted and is totally honest. That may be because she has the least amount of power, and thus the least to lose, in a world where capturing pain is the ultimate get.

'Five Minutes of Heaven'
Who: Adapted by Michael Egan. Directed by Michael Robins.
Where: Illusion Theater, 3754 Pleasant Av. S., Mpls.
When: 7:30 p.m. Wed.-Sat., 2 p.m. Sun. Ends Oct. 23.
Tickets: All tickets are name-your-price. 612-339-4944 or illusiontheater.org.
Protocol: Masks required.