DUBLIN YOUR PLEASURE
WITH GOOD DRAMA AND COMEDY
With a somewhat-forgettable title and a rather vague plot summary on the website, one walks into Outside Mullingar not quite sure what they are going to see. By the end of the first scene of this 95-minute one-act play, one could still be wondering: “Is this going to be a drama with a few laughs? Or a comedy with some touching moments?” Honestly, that’s still debatable by the end, but it covers both bases so well that anyone will leave satisfied.
Soon after the play’s onset in the tiny Irish village of Killucan, old farmer Tony (Robert Smyth) and his barely younger neighbor Aoife (Deborah Gilmour Smyth) are commiserating after the funeral of Aoifa’s husband. Clearly, she will inherit her husband’s farm, including a little strip of easement land that Tony must cross every day on the way in and out of his property. As the old friends talk, Tony reveals to Aoifa (pronounced EE-fuh) that he’s leaning toward not leaving the farm to his son, Anthony (Brian Mackey), because he feels that Anthony doesn’t love the land and would simply feel bound to it. Aoife’s daughter Rosemary (Rachel VanWormer) enters and, hearing the discussion, joins her mother in pleading with Tony to change his mind, despite the fact that Rosemary and Anthony barely speak because he is socially awkward and she holds a very old grudge against him.
As the plot continues, we learn a lot more about the history of all four, what motivates each, how each of them feel about the proximity of the deaths of Tony and Aoife, and what it means to count on and care for your neighbors when you live in a remote area. The Irish accents, references, and cultural influences make the program even more interesting as we peek in on a far away world — laughing both with them and at them while being touched by their circumstances.
Good casting for this show is critical, because this show could easily be ruined with mediocre performers; I shudder to think what a high school production of this would look like! Lamb’s, however, couldn’t have gotten this more right; as lovely as the script is, it’s the four performances that make it so dang delightful.
As he did in Lamb’s Noises Off seasons ago, Brian Mackey summons his clown-like brilliance yet again. In Mullingar’s final scene, Mackey blusters out an unexpected line that stops the show with laughter. It’s a great written line, but so much of the humor is in Mackey’s face, body, and tone, giving it much more impact than even playwright John Patrick Shanley likely would have expected. Rachel VanWormer, in a non-lead role, recently got roars of applause for her performance in Cygnet’s The Little Fellow but, of the many roles I’ve caught her in over the years, Mullingar is arguably her best-played. Deborah Gilmour Smyth and her real-life husband Robert Smyth (who both also co-direct with Kerry Meads) have been solid, core players at Lamb’s, time and again, since at least my earliest visits there in the early ’˜90s. Each actor clearly relishes their broad roles in this production.
Outside Mullingar beautifully walks the line between tenderly sweet and downright laughable. The pace at the beginning (especially the second scene) might be too slow for some, especially younger folks, but if you give it that little time to come together through all the initial exposition, the payoff is lovely and it’s clear why word-of-mouth has Lamb’s extending this run already.
photos by Ken Jacques
Outside Mullingar
Lamb’s Players Theatre
1142 Orange Ave, Coronado, CA 92118
Wed at 2 & 7; Thu & Fri at 7; Sat at 2 & 7; Sun at 2
ends on February 18, 2024 EXTENDED to March 3, 2024
for tickets, call 619.437.6000 or visit Lamb’s Players