In 'Howie the Rookie' it's what you don't see that counts

As Howie Lee in "Howie the Rookie," Kevin Steinberg has the Dublin teenage hoodlum image down to a Celtic-ornamented T. I wish I had been able to understand a word he said.

Steinberg, who according to the program for the New England premiere of Mark O'Rowe's play, was born in Canada and raised Jewish, is "convinced he was switched at birth with an Irish family's baby." He has changed his name to O'Neill, tattooed a massive Celtic chain half way around his thick neck, and made his professional debut in this production, which takes place at the Sug??n Theatre on Tremont St. The only sign that Steinberg is more borscht than he is clover? His accent. To my rather inexperienced ear, he sometimes sounds Northern Irish, sometimes Scottish, sometimes Canadian, and very rarely like his co-performer, Billy Meleady, who is also playing a Dublin native.

O'Rowe's play, which has won numerous awards in Ireland and is making its New England premiere at the Sug??n, gives a piss and blood account of poverty- and honor-driven violence in present-day Dublin. It consists of two one-man acts. In the first, Howie Lee (Steinberg) is a teenager who neglects his familial duties to alley-pummel the Rookie Lee, who infected his friend's mattress with scabies. The second act starts Billy Meleady, who has worked for the Sug??n for years and whose performance in this show won him Best Supporting Actor in the 2001 Independent Reviewers of New England Awards.

The monologues were no small feat. In addition to speaking onstage for a full hour, each actor had to communicate the personalities, mannerisms and actions of several characters besides his own. At this, Steinberg excelled. His shaven head, powerful stance and rash expression led the audience effortlessly across the broad scale of emotions and social contexts upon which the play comments. Howie's character is tough and macho, led less by its head than its "Mickey," but he is not without that magic pinch of Holden Caulfield that tugs at our hearts when Howie's rake and reckless tramping and rambling result in irrevocable family tragedy. His story has the dichotomy of humor and heartbreak that make a character real and a friend of the audience for the duration of the show.

Meleady's character, Rookie Lee, was slighter, or more self-absorbed, less concerned with how much the audience sympathized with him than that he told us every detail of his debonair love life ("I break hearts and hymens") and of his near run-in with his terrifying boss, Lady Boy. I personally was not as moved by him as I was by Steinberg's performance, for while Meleady captured Rookie Lee's arrogant manner and simple attitude, he lacked the charisma and passion for the role that Steinberg displayed. Part of this was because his character was comparatively one-sided; while Howie solicited the audience's understanding in the midst of his vulgar recounting, Rookie Lee just told it like it was.

His vulgarity is funny, though, in a way Americans can understand. The audience seemed to appreciate his humor much better than they appreciated Steinberg's in the first act (perhaps because his accent was considerably easier for an American ear to decipher). Rookie Lee's main purpose in the play is to reveal a more caring side of Howie than Howie is willing to reveal, and at this he truly succeeds. In the space between Rookie Lee's innocent version of Howie's action and what we, the audience, have been made privy to regarding Howie's life in the first act lies the truth: the effect that personal tragedy has had on a robust young man. O'Rowe proves that survival in the slums of Dublin involves violence _ violence for the simple who must defend themselves, and more violence for the thoughtful who strive to defend their brothers.

The Sug??n Theatre will be producing Howie the Rookie from now until Feb. 15. Tickets are $24 and $29, and student discounts are available. Tickets may be purchased by calling the Box Office and BCA Infoline. Call (617) 426-2787 or visit www.sugan.org.