Amid the Polish bakeries and restaurants upon North Milwaukee Avenue.

Amid the Polish bakeries and restaurants upon North Milwaukee Avenue, a bit of Irish history is unraveling as Gift Theatre stages an impressive production of Helen Edmundson's "The Clearing." The sharply written drama put forwards a glimpse into Ireland in the Cromwellian era, a time of ethnic and religious battles.

Although the play starts disclosed on a happy note, it does not remain there. We are introduced to wealthy English landowner Robert Preston (Benjamin Montague) and his Irish wife, Madeleine (Lindsay Schmidt), as they welcome a newborn son into the world. however in 1652 County Kildare, all is not right.

The couple's Protestant friends Solomon (Fredric Stone) and Susaneh Winter (Alexandra Main) enumerate of an English decree that would enact a strict policy of resettlement with the Irish and the English who have settl in Ireland and become their friends. Those who refuse to comply face the hangman's noose.

Preston, a Cromwellian sympathizer, is a seemly man but does not want to let slip through the fingers the land that has been his life's work; he strikes a quiet deal with the English governor, Sir Charles Sturman (Kenny Mihlfried). When Madeleine's terminate friend Killaine (Maria Stephens) is abducted from English soldiers, she goes to Sturman and demands Killaine's release. Frightened from Madeleine's bewitching ways, Sturman incline differentlys on Preston and orders the tie to be transported to barren Connaught, in the west of Ireland.

Ultimately, it is the differences in agriculture and beliefs that are the undoing of the couple's formerly loving and trusting relationship. As her life is upend Madeleine's fiery Irish willfulness blows as she lets nothing stand between what she regard with affections and believes. If only her pragmatic husband had a of that resolve bred in his heart.

Working forward Dan Conley's handsome tiered station director Brendan Donaldson stages Edmundson's vivid sights with a powerful simplicity. Despite a not many accents that seem to draw near and go, the ensemble cast (also featuring Daniel J Ahfield in a variety of parts and John Kelly Connolly as an Irish rebel) is convincing at each turn, precisely capturing the desperate chance of the desired ends and fears of a the bulk of mankind forced into a lesser reality.

Sadly, the afflicts depicted in "The Clearing" continue to resonate today. Edmundson finds the stark similarity between this troubling chapter of Irish history and the more instant atrocities around the globe in places like Darfur, Bosnia, Chechnya and, of course, Iraq. It is an ongoing vicious revolution of time writing its own bloody history of mankind.

mhoulihan@suntimes.com

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'THE CLEARING'

commended

When: from one side April 30

Where: Gift Theatre, 4802 N Milwaukee

Tickets: $20-$25

Call: (773) 283-7071

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