By Barb Brouwer
Contributor
It’s a wee bit of Ireland on Hudson Avenue.
Join the Muldoon and Reilly families in a kitchen just Outside Mullingar, a rural setting in the Irish Midlands and Shuswap Theatre’s final MainStage production of the year.
This is the tangled love story between two members of families that have occupied side-by-side farms for generations. Rosemary Muldoon and Anthony Reilly have grown up together, and after an unlikely occurrence at the age of six, Rosemary has believed that Anthony would one day declare his love for her.
Approaching her middle years and tired of waiting, headstrong Rosemary vows to have the introverted and seemingly oblivious Tony at all costs. When Anthony’s aging father, Tony, threatens to leave the farm to an American nephew, Rosemary heroically jumps into the middle of a longtime feud between the two families.
In among the many hilarious aspects of the play, are darker moments and several tender ones touch the heart as they relate to our mortality and what becomes of those we leave behind.
Hilarity reigns supreme following the intermission, with Rosemary and Anthony’s attempts to untangle the miscommunications that have blocked their romance.
Outside Mullingar is directed by longtime Shuswap Theatre member Kim MacMilan, who ably stepped in for the ailing John Lomas (Tony Reilly) on opening night.
A fan of John Patrick Shanley, who also wrote Moonstruck, MacMillan said the playwright has captured the spirit of the place where his father grew up in this “charming and peculiarly Irish story where signs from heaven take their place in modern life.”
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With many roles to her credit and well-known for her performances with Vernon Powerhouse Theatre, Eileen Podanowski favours Irish plays and is wildly funny as the distraught Aoife Muldoon, who dislikes confrontation but voices what she wants for her daughter.
Also hilarious, obtuse and tender by turn is gifted actor Oliver Becker who, since graduating from Vancouver’s Playhouse Acting School, has performed on every major stage across Canada. Appearing with the permission of Canadian Actors’ Equity Association, Becker said he is delighted to be making his Shuswap Theatre debut in “such a beautiful play.”
And then there is Rosemary Muldoon, a role crafted beautifully by Liz Willms, who credits the large Irish family she married into for her believable accent. Also making her debut with Shuswap Theatre, Willms displays female backbone and determination with panache.
Outside Mullingar explores the eccentricities of family and life that serves audiences rich food for thought with a heaping side of laughter. And a big shout out to the crew who created a unique and beautiful set.
Outside Mullingar plays to May 11 with pay-what-you-can Thursday on May 2, evening performances AT 7:30 May 2, 3 and 4 and May 8,9,10 and a matinee on May 5 at 1:30 p.m. This production is Shuswap Theatre’s entry in this year’s Okanagan Zone Festival, at 7;30 p.m. May 15 at Vernon’s Powerhouse Theatre.