{"id":10902,"date":"2019-03-29T17:15:41","date_gmt":"2019-03-29T17:15:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/?p=10902"},"modified":"2019-03-29T17:15:41","modified_gmt":"2019-03-29T17:15:41","slug":"outside-mullingar-will-coax-you-inside","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/2019\/03\/29\/outside-mullingar-will-coax-you-inside\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Outside Mullingar\u2019 Will Coax You Inside"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sawtooth Productions to present John Patrick Shanley play<\/i><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

By Dana DuGan<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"
A love letter to Ireland, \u2018Outside Mullingar\u2019 takes place on neighboring farms. Photo credit: Sawtooth Productions<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

John Patrick Shanley is a fairly prolific playwright who pens witty and engaging dramas with complex characters, such as \u201cDoubt\u201d and \u201cMoonstruck,\u201d both of which were made into hit movies.<\/p>\n

Sawtooth Productions, in association with Laughing Stock Theatre Company, will stage Shanley\u2019s 2014 Tony Award-nominated play, \u201cOutside Mullingar,\u201d at the Argyros Performing Arts Center in Ketchum, at 7 p.m. Wednesday, April 3, through Sunday, April 7. There will be a matinee at 1:30 p.m. Sunday, April 7.<\/p>\n

The play concerns a quartet of neighbors in a small Irish town: a mother and daughter grieving the death of their husband and father, and an elderly father and son grappling with their own situation.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe play takes place soon after the Irish economic boom and bust known at the Celtic Tiger,\u201d said Paul Lazar, director. \u201cIn a subtle way, that disaster is a background presence\u00a0against which\u00a0timeless issues are passionately grappled with: love and death. And all of it done with immense humor.\u201d<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, there are issues that tie, and repel, the two families. Anthony\u2019s father, played by Andrew Alburger, is involved in a small land feud with his neighbor, Aoife Muldoon. And there are long-simmering feelings between Anthony, played by David Janeski, and Rosemary, played by Aly Wepplo.<\/p>\n

\u201cTheir journey is heartbreaking, funny as hell, and ultimately deeply moving,\u201d said Jonathan Kane, producer of Sawtooth Productions. \u201cOutside Mullingar is a compassionate, delightful work about how it\u2019s never too late to take a chance on love.\u201d<\/p>\n

Shanley was inspired to write the play after traveling with his father to visit relatives in Ireland. Watching his unmarried cousin interact with the lovely, single woman on the farm next door opened a window into Shanley\u2019s imagination.<\/p>\n

The actors, who are using an Irish dialect, seem to connect to Shanley and the play on some level.<\/p>\n

\u201cI love Shanley,\u201d said Claudia McCain, who plays Aoife.\u00a0\u201cI have performed in another of his shows, and readings of some of his plays, as well as watching them here and in New York.\u00a0Plus, I had the good fortune of meeting him when he was here with Company of Fools.\u00a0He is so gifted with language.\u201d<\/p>\n

McCain added that she\u2019d seen the play when it was staged on Broadway in 2014.<\/p>\n

\u201cI came out of the theater with a smile and a full heart,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s so charming, engaging, and rich.\u00a0Now, being a part of it, I have continued to find more humor, wisdom, love and honesty.\u00a0It\u2019s quirky and endearing.\u00a0It really is a love letter.\u201d<\/p>\n

Janeski paraphrased the author, \u201cThe Irish have a way of speaking plainly, saying terrible things to each other in a charming way,\u201d he said. \u201cAt the heart of this brooding landscape is a passionate romance that will be discovered against all obstacles.\u201d<\/p>\n

The New York Times wrote in a review that the play was \u201cMr. Shanley\u2019s finest work since \u2018Doubt\u2019\u2026 a softhearted comedy freckled with dark reflections on the unsatisfactory nature of life and the thorns of love.\u201d<\/p>\n

Indeed, conflict\u2014which makes the world go round, and stories written about it\u2014is everywhere.<\/p>\n

Wepplo said her character, Rosemary, has \u201cbeen in love with her next-door neighbor, Anthony Reilly, all her life. But she\u2019s \u2018stubborn to the point of madness,\u2019 and will wait the rest of her life for him to make the first move.\u201d<\/p>\n

And yet, there is poignancy within each circle of connection.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis show is highly relatable because it is about family\u2014how we hold together or not, and why we do,\u201d McCain said. \u201cAs my character says:\u00a0\u2018Time means nothing, Love is love.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

The production of \u201cOutside Mullingar\u201d will be the first staged theatrical production at the Argyros Performing Arts Center.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re very excited to be the first,\u201d Kane said.<\/p>\n

He has tech crew from New York City aiding in the process. The set is designed by Andreea Mincic, lighting design is by Lucrecia Briceno, and sound and projection by Eamonn Farrell. Briceno and Farrell worked on Kane\u2019s productions of \u201cMy Name Is Rachel Corrie\u201d in San Francisco and New York. As well, Farrell also worked on the Sawtooth Productions\u2019 staging of \u201cBuyer & Cellar\u201d at Whiskey Jacques\u2019 last year.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re the key to how great this production is going to be,\u201d Kane said. \u201cAs is my director, Paul Lazar, also from New York. We are really lucky to have him. He\u2019s a superstar of New York\u2019s downtown theatre scene; he replaced Willem DeFoe in the Worcester Group.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kane, who has been presenting theatre readings and productions for 20 years, said he has a \u201cdream cast\u201d for this show.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m a huge Shanley fan,\u201d Kane said. \u201cWith this play he shows what a great writer he is. It didn\u2019t play long on Broadway, but it\u2019s setting box office records at top regional theatres around the country. It\u2019s got dark Irish humor, which I love. Aly and David\u2014who\u2019re married in real life\u2014are incredible. And Claudia and Andrew are so funny in it. I couldn\u2019t be happier with this cast. And it\u2019s going to look so good. The design elements are unlike anything people might have seen in the Valley before.\u201d<\/p>\n

For tickets to \u201cOutside Mullingar,\u201d visit sawtoothproductionsllc.com, or theargyros.org.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sawtooth Productions to present John Patrick Shanley play By Dana DuGan John Patrick Shanley is a fairly prolific playwright who pens witty and engaging dramas with complex characters, such as \u201cDoubt\u201d and \u201cMoonstruck,\u201d both of which were made into hit movies. Sawtooth Productions, in association with Laughing Stock Theatre Company, will stage Shanley\u2019s 2014 Tony […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":10904,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","_pvb_checkbox_block_on_post":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[68,4,53],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-10902","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-calendar-2","8":"category-entertainment","9":"category-calendar-feature"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10902","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10902"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10902\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10904"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10902"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10902"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10902"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}