You can’t live against life.
You can’t keep away bad
by avoiding good.
By Eric George Tauber
SAN DIEGO –The Emerald Isle’s lush green hills freckled with braying sheep can seem so tranquil. Yet this land has been beset by famine, oppression, corruption and unrest. At night, the pubs are bustling and fights are not too uncommon.
Playwright John Patrick Shanley states that he never wanted to write about the Irish. He never wanted to be confined as a writer by his ethnicity. But on a trip to Ireland -listening to his Irish family talk- he recognized “the lost and beautiful world of my poet’s heart.”
I think it was the music of the Irish brogue that inspired my crush on the secretary when I was a college boy in the UK. So I was glad to see Grace Delaney’s name as a dramaturge and dialect coach. She’s your go-to if you want the real thing.
Live music sets Outside Mullingar‘s toe-tapping mood with Jim Mooney on guitar, Alicia Previn on a green fiddle and Richard Tibbits on a wooden flute. They even led us in a sing along of the drinking tune “Wild Rover.”
And this brings us into Giulio Perrone’s very rustic farmhouse kitchen where tree limbs serve as table legs, chairs are upholstered in sheep-skins and an easy chair is hewn into a tree trunk.
Old farmer Tony Reilly (Mike Genovese) is getting on, but he doesn’t want to leave the farm to his only son, Anthony (Manny Fernandes) because “he’s not a true Reilly.” He’s worked the land his whole life, but he doesn’t “love it” like his father. Mother and daughter Aolfe and Rosemary Muldoon (Ellen Crawford and Carla Harting) have a likewise contentious yet devoted bond.
Anthony and Rosemary aren’t young, star-crossed lovers swooning for each other. They’re two farmers in their 40s who never married. They’ve known each other their whole lives –and they clearly belong together- but emotional baggage weighs them down.
Sharpen your ears and sit on the edge of your seat. The patter comes like clogs dancing a jig, punctuated by pregnant silences. Words are layered with pain and affection, hurtfulness and heart. Some lines brought howls of laughter while other moments brought a tear.
The banter between Genovese and Crawford is especially fun to listen to. Filled with playful ease and bite, they were like two tiger cubs: both wrestling for dominance, but with claws in.
Outside Mullingar has already been extended by the San Diego Rep. through Sunday, Feb 21.
Folks in our community can take a life lesson from J.P. Shanley. As a writer, Shanley didn’t want to be defined by his Irishness. But it was in his heritage that he truly found himself. Likewise, many Jews have assimilated in order to fit in to the larger society. Yet later generations are making teshuvah and even aliyah to Israel, finding themselves in a rich heritage that once was lost.
*
Tauber is a freelance writer who specializes in coverage of the arts. He may be contacted via eric.tauber@sdjewishworld.com . Comments intended for publication in the space below must be accompanied by the letter writer’s first and last name and by his/ her city and state of residence (city and country for those outside the U.S.)