City Theatre Company
October 11 – November 2
Various times
City Theatre Company kicks off 40th anniversary season with a 2014 Tony Award nominee for Best Play. Premiering in Pittsburgh, John Patrick Shanley’s Outside Mullingar runs October 11th through November 2nd on City Theatre’s Mainstage.
Winner of a 1988 Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay for Moonstruck, as well as the 2005 Pulitzer Prize for Drama for his work, Doubt: A Parable, Shanley has authored more than 23 plays that have been translated and performed around the world, including 80 productions per year in North America.
Following in the same spirit as his award-winning film, Moonstruck, Shanley’s 2014 Irish comedy, Outside Mullingar, is a witty, heartwarming and unconventional love story with a magical twist. Outside Mullingar blends iconic elements of classic Irish drama, such as poetic language, strong characters, family history, deep secrets and a quirky love story, with a clever modern sensibility.
Audiences will be transported to the sprawling countryside of Ireland’s Midlands, where two farmers, Anthony and Rosemary live side by side. Shanley’s Irish comedy chronicles the story of aging Irish cattle farmer Tony Reilly, whose wife is dead and gone. With his own life marching on, Tony threatens to leave his family’s cattle farm to his American nephew instead of to his son and namesake. Theater-goers will discover what ensues when Tony’s neighbor Rosemary reveals an old family secret that could alter the fate of all of the play’s characters. Longtime neighbors, Tony and Rosemary are described as “loners going on 40, eccentric souls, and, perhaps, just right for each other.”
Directed by Tracy Brigden, Outside Mullingar stars Ron Menzel (Anthony Reilly) Mary Rawson (Aiofe), Noble Shropshire (Tony Reilly) and Megan Byrne (Rosemary). The production’s creative team includes Anne Mundell (scenic), Almeda Beynon (sound), Andrew David Ostrowski (lighting), Susan Tsu (csostume) and Don Wadsworth (dialects).
The play made its Broadway debut in January 2014, in a production directed by Doug Hughes that starred Brian F. O’Byrne, Debra Messing, Dearbhla Molloy and Peter Maloney.
Go beyond the stage to learn more about the cast and crew, during one of City Theatre’s public programs, including Sipping Sunday on October 12th, Sunday Talkbacks on October 19th and October 26th and a Greenroom Young Professional’s Night on October 24th.
Watch a behind-the-scene video preview of Outside Mullingar.