Kathy McCafferty and Patricia Kilgarriff in Outside Mullingar. (Photo by Samantha Mighdoll)
Palm Beach Dramaworks sets aside the heaviness of Eugene O’Neill, Edward Albee and William Inge for an uncharacteristic comedy, a romantic comedy no less. And while plenty of theater practitioners will tell you that producing comedy is harder than drama, you would never know it from the ease with which director J. Barry Lewis and his cast deliver the charm-laden Outside Mullingar.
Written by John Patrick Shanley — probably best known for the film Moonstruck, which earned him an Oscar — Mullingar concerns a middle-aged couple, Rosemary Muldoon (Kathy McCafferty) and Anthony Reilly (Nick Hetherington), who grew up in adjacent farms in the Irish town of Killucan, just outside Mulligar in the Midlands. As with most rom-coms, there have been plenty of obstacles placed in their way, keeping them from accepting the inevitability of their love match until the time — oh, about an hour and three quarters of intermissionless minutes — is right.
Until then there is lots of gloomy weather, Irish preoccupation with death and a lyrical way with language. Eventually, though, rest assured that the clouds will part and — slight spoiler — the sun will emerge for an optimistic resolution.
Prime among the obstacles to a final romantic clinch is the fact that 30 years ago — when Rosemary was 6 and Anthony 13 — he pushed her and she fell to the ground. He now claims to have no recollection of the incident, but it is burned into her memory forever. Nevertheless, Rosemary has pined for Anthony all this time while he has been completely oblivious to her interest. A typically obtuse man.
A more concrete impediment between them is the thin strip of land that divides their farms, an access road to the Reilly farm that was deeded to Rosemary as a child. The land is virtually useless to her, except as a roadblock to any future sale of the Reilly property. And then there is the rejection of Anthony by his childhood sweetheart, Fiona, which he has never gotten over and which he feels certain stems from one of the loopiest reasons in the annals of romantic comedy.
Alex Wipf and Nick Hetherington in Outside Mullingar. (Photo by Samantha Mighdoll)
As with most of the genre, the success of Outside Mullingar hinges on the chemistry between the two leads. In that sense, the Dramaworks production is on solid ground. Lewis went hunting to New York for the right actors and the effort pays off. Flame-haired McCafferty somehow makes a woman described as “stubborn to the point of madness” attractive. She know what she wants and how to go after it, exactly the opposite of Hetherington’s Anthony, which is the secret of their magnetic pull. He is sensitive in the extreme, which helps to explain his emotionally blocked existence.
In support are Anthony’s father (Alex Wipf) and Rosemary’s recently widowed mum (Patricia Kilgarriff), whose dialogue helps us to understand how their offspring are the way they are. He particularly scores with a scene with Anthony, where he softens to the lad whose commitment to the farm had always disappointed him.
Lighting designer Paul Black also contributes the set, relying on a sizeable turntable to transport us fluidly between the two family farmhouses and the fields nearby.
OUTSIDE MULLINGAR, Palm Beach Dramaworks, 201 Clematis St., West Palm Beach. Through Sunday, April 24. $64. 561-514-4042, ext. 2.