Outside Mullingar

Outside Mullingar
By John Patrick Shanley. Mordialloc Theatre Company inc. February 17 to March 3, 2017

There are some rare moments when you witness a community theatre performance and wonder why people spend upwards of $100 to go to see professional shows.  Mordialloc Theatre Company’s Outside Mullingar was clearly one of those moments.

From the first time that the actors stepped on stage to the very last moment, the audience is whisked away into this ‘slice of life’ production, so real that you felt you were spying on two abutted family circumstances.

The Reilly family, Tony (Eric Heyes) and his son Anthony (Stephen Shinkfield) and the Muldoon family, Aoife (Juliet Hayday) and her daughter Rosemary (Melanie Rowe) are neighbours, just outside Killucan, Ireland.  Both have cattle and sheep farms that are becoming increasingly harder to run.  Aoilfe has just lost her husband, so it is up to Rosemary to continue running the farm; and Tony thinking of selling his farm to his brother in America, even though it is Anthony who is the one currently maintaining the livestock.

Concurrently, Rosemary is still bitter towards Anthony, who at 6 and 12 respectively had a fight out the front of the Reilly home where Anthony pushed Rosemary in the mud (at the time of the play Rosemary is 39 and Anthony 45). We are delighted (and frustrated) to watch this relationship unfold.

The ensemble of the four actors was intensely wonderful to watch.  Not one outshone the others, working together in complete and total harmony.  Accents were perfectly situated for the location of the play. Each of the actors compensated for the stronger Irish accent by enunciating each word, so the audience didn’t miss any dialogue.

Director Helen Ellis, a consummate professional, always achieves the utmost peak from her casts.  As a regular director (and performer) in the amateur circuit around Victoria, the audience knows they are in for a good show.

I was hoping for more traditional Irish atmosphere music, rather than hyped modern Irish bands. However this is a small complaint really.

The Shirley Burke Theatre in Parkdale is not an opulent theatre, nor does it have a house curtain, so when you enter the auditorium you are immediately looking at the set on stage. Created by Jack Geraghty, it was beautifully designed in separated parts – the ‘blokes’ kitchen on one side and the ‘feminine’ kitchen on the other. Each was researched and designed in keeping with the era and location; to the dirty dishes and multiple used teabags on one side and the matching porcelain canisters on the other. The kitchens were divided by a pathway separating the two farms.  It was lovely to see a set without the small foot height dividers between locations, but left open and not closed off to the rest of the set.

I am sorry that I could not attend this production until closing night.  I would have been shouting loudly for anyone to immediately drop their plans to see this production.  I am certainly looking forward to the next Mordialloc Theatre performance, if this is the amazingly high quality that they produce.

Penelope Thomas

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