About the Play:
Outside Mullingar is a full-length dramatic romantic comedy
by John Patrick Shanley. Family farms, feuds and fences have
separated neighbours Rosemary and Anthony since childhood. But as the
heather blooms in the Irish countryside, unexpected charms are
unearthed. Pulitzer, Tony and Academy Award winning playwright John
Patrick Shanley's wry, romantic comedy reminds us that love,
early or late, always arrives on time.
Outside Mullingar is about the romance of Anthony and
Rosemary, neighbours in rural Ireland, who are two introverted
misfits straddling 40. Anthony has spent his entire life on a cattle
farm, a state of affairs that – due to his painful shyness –
suits him well. Rosemary lives right next door, determined to have
him, watching the years slip away. With Anthony's father threatening
to disinherit him and a land feud simmering between their families,
Rosemary has every reason to fear romantic catastrophe. But then, in
this very Irish story with a surprising depth of poetic passion,
these yearning, eccentric souls fight their way towards solid ground
and some kind of happiness. Their journey is heartbreaking, funny as
hell, and ultimately deeply moving. Full of dark humour and poetic
prose, Outside Mullingar is a compassionate, tenderhearted
portrait reminds us it's never too late to take a chance on love.
Outside Mullingar premiered in 2014 on Broadway at the
Samuel J. Friedman Theatre, in a critically acclaimed production
starring Tony winner Brian F. O'Byrne and Emmy winner Debra Messing,
making her Broadway debut. The
play enjoyed widespread acceptance among leading regional theatres,
and is
regularly performed in repertory, college,
and community theatre productions.
Cast: 2 female, 2 male
What people say:
"Outside Mullingar
is a charmer of a play... In [Shanley's] first work set in Ireland,
he lovingly tends the roots and tills the soil of his ancestry,
spinning a tale suffused with melancholy humor and a deep yearning
for heart, home, land, faith and a sense of belonging.... Shanley has
a poet's ear for the lyrical music and twinkly humor of their
dialogue." — Hollywood Reporter
"Outside
Mullingar is a valentine to the wonder and weirdness of
love." — New York Daily News
"Wholly diverting... Mr.
Shanley's finest work since Doubt…a
softhearted comedy freckled with dark reflections on the
unsatisfactory nature of life and the thorns of love." —
New York Times
"Deliciously funny, a twisted
comedy about death and love that flirts with – and sometimes
embraces – Irish cliches galore." — Vancouver Sun
"John Patrick Shanley
has not written a more beautiful or loving play than Outside
Mullingar." — Variety
"Here as in Moonstruck,
Mr. Shanley is telling a tale of inhibition overcome by love, but
he's translated it (so to speak) from Italian to Gaelic, and the
results are both charming and dramatically persuasive." —
Wall Street Journal
"The romantic tension is
palpable and delightful." — LA Weekly
About the Playwright:
John Patrick Shanley is an American playwright,
screenwriter, and director. Shanley has written some two dozen Off
Broadway plays since the 1970s, but he is best known for Doubt,
which won the 2005 Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award. He has also written
extensively for TV and film, and his credits include the teleplay for
Live from Baghdad and screenplays for Five Corners and
Moonstruck, for which he won an Academy Award for original
screenplay.