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Doin? a man?s job

February 16, 2011

By Staff Reporter

The shot suggests an affable, easy-going sort of fellow, perhaps a college halfback, very slightly running to fat some 10 years after graduation.
In the flesh, of which there is, in actuality, considerably less than the photograph might indicate, O?Hern is a rather slight, somewhat nervous, balding guy who suggests a slightly dehydrated version of actor Ed Harris.
The 90-minute, intermissionless show that O?Hern wrote and is, obviously, drawn from his own experience, beats a kind of slogan alongside its title, reading ?Motherhood. It?s a Man?s Job.?
The implication, clearly, is that O?Hern?s effort will prove to be a kind of stage equivalent of the movie ?Mr. Mom.? As it works out, that?s not really an accurate description of the show that the affable O?Hern has brought to the stage of 42nd Street?s Lion Theater.
Much of the brief evening?s length is devoted to O?Hern?s efforts to impregnate his wife, to which end he receives some startling advice from one of the regulars at his local, Murphy?s, on how to make sure that the right sperm makes contact with the right egg, and that the resulting child will be the desired male.
The bizarre suggestions delivered in the pub appear to have been on target since O?Hern?s firstborn was, indeed, a boy whom his parents named Max.
The core of ?A Rooster in the Henhouse,? centering on that all-important impregnation, is surprisingly clinical, verging, as it does at times, on the disturbingly graphic. At the same time, it is undeniably informative, perhaps particularly so for anyone who has never been a parent.
At moments, O?Hern seems to deal a little roughly with his wife, Lisa, although most of the time, his approach is both satirical and sympathetic.
Whenever O?Hern edges toward outright cruelty in his depiction of his spouse, however, dealing with such matters as the apparently excessive amount of weight she gained in the course of her first pregnancy, it?s impossible not to wonder what Lisa thinks of the show her husband has put together. Since she?s producing the event, it?s probably safe to assume that things are relatively calm at home.
Nevertheless a couple of O?Hern?s remarks about his wife drew audible gasps from the female portion of one preview audience. Even in those touchy passages, it must be stated, he?s at least as unflinchingly honest in dealing with his own participation.
Because his wife had a corporate job in which she kept getting significant and frequent promotions, ending up as one of the firm?s vice presidents, it was a given from the outset that O?Hern, who was, after all, a largely unemployed actor, would stay at home and look after the baby.
By the time Max actually arrives, O?Hern is perhaps 50 minutes into his show, and its only then that he becomes the ?stay-at-home dad? the promotional handout seemed to indicate would be the subject of the show.
Once the new dad is alone in his apartment with his newborn, the actor strikes an unexpected and deeply moving note. Coping with the infant by himself in the hours before his wife arrives home from her lucrative job, he looks at the baby and, leaning over him, pleads, ?Stay alive, just please stay alive!?
The moment is both funny and truthful, reflecting a feeling that every parent has experienced at one time or another. ?What do I do if the kid stops breathing??
The latter portion of O?Hern?s casual, easily digestible venture plunges him into a day-by-day world populated overwhelmingly by women, particularly youngish, married women. When the couple moved to Connecticut shortly after the birth of their first child, O?Hern?s new and unfamiliar universe narrowed to a population of youngish married suburban women, with the strengths and weaknesses that implies.
Gathering with the other ?mothers? at the beach, O?Hern exchanges recipes, gets tips on baby care, discusses fashion trends and diaper rash and wonders why the little group of ?matrons? he ogles down the shore seem to be in better physical shape than he and his companions are until he learns that he?s been gazing at a collection of thong-wearing Swedish au pairs, most of them still in their teens.
The setting for ?A Rooster in the Henhouse? is simplicity itself, comprising a couch, a camp chair, a couple of small tables and nothing more, apart from a few subtle changes in lighting.
Deftly directed by Mark S. Graham, with whom O?Hern has worked on the show for a considerable length of time including a tryout at the Westport Arts Center in Connecticut, ?A Rooster in the Henhouse? finds the actor portraying characters ranging from Roberta, a birthing class instructor, to Oakley, a no-nonsense night nurse from Jamaica, and from O?Donahue, that advice-giving regular at Murphy?s, to Dr. Wassman, the noted ?gynecologist and author,? to mention only four.
For the most part, O?Hern, who appears to have worked more in regional theater than locally, executes his little gallery of secondary characters, numbering a couple of dozen, with grace and style, never allowing them to bleed into one another and escape specificity.
?A Rooster in the Henhouse? is a richly insightful and intensely compassionate experience. And it?s frequently funny, too.

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