When selecting a play for production, my favorite elements to look for are often the little nuances that can be observed when poring over scripts. Many times, these nuances explain a lot about the playwright’s intent regarding the suggested atmosphere with respect to genre and the overall scope of the play. For this column, I offer some observances from reading one of the non-musical plays that will be produced by the Civic Theatre Guild this spring. I’m directing the other non-musical, but I’ll have a couple more entries before production in which I will plan to discuss that play (I can’t wait to share that play with you, by the way).
The play I’ll discuss in this entry is John Patrick Shanley’s “Outside Mullingar,” a romantic comedy set just outside a rural town in Ireland. Two farmers, a man and a woman that occupy neighboring farmsteads with their respective parents, have been silently feuding since they were children, even though they’ve maintained a guise that is amicable enough. I’ve met with director Gene Davis several times over the past few months to discuss the logistics of staging the play, which is somewhat difficult as the play has six separate locations over its duration. Gene has been able to come up some fairly ingenious solutions, despite the limitations of a 18’x15’ stage.
However, as I recall the script beyond the demands of the locations, one particular element keeps resurfacing. I’m sure we’ve all read the timeline of a play in the playbill during our attendance. For example, “Scene One: an afternoon in October,” “Scene Two: later that evening.” These seem pretty familiar. In “Outside Mullingar,” the first three scenes of the play take place within the same evening. Then, the next scene takes place nearly a year later. This is all pretty conventional; we’ve all been able to suspend our disbelief this far before. But, as I recall, the next scene takes place several years later, with barely any mention of any contact between the characters in that time. The characters have not left the location in this time, and the ensuing scenes are not an epilogue, which often happens with the usage of such time in plays. Rather, they are a continuation of the ongoing story. So, going into the production, knowing that the play will be a romantic comedy, as an audience member, you may get a deeper appreciation of the nuance that the playwright means to project. These two clueless lovers have been dancing around the issue put forth onstage for nearly a decade, while only being a stone’s throw away from each other. Sometimes, it’s easy to assume that, when the lights go out in one scene, and then come up in the next that only a short amount of time has passed. But, in Shanley’s piece, he deliberately separates these two scenes and two characters by an ocean of time.
I’m reminded of a movie I once saw that was narrated by extensive voiceover in which a man was in prison, and received a letter from someone on the outside once a week. Then, the letters stopped coming, and he became terrified about the safety of the sender. Then, the screen went dark, and the voiceover gravely said, “Eight years pass,” and after a brief pause, the story continues. So, the viewer has to inject the weight of the circumstances (prison and worry), multiplied by the passage of time, all within a matter of seconds. This is no different in “Mullingar.” While the play does offer a fair amount of dark comedy and romantic musings, it’s easy to forget that, upon leaving the theater, the audience has shared the most significant events of these characters’ lives over a decade, all in under two hours’ time.
These little details, written in just a few words in the script, help the actors ground their performances, thinking of small things like, “How would I behave under these circumstances? Who was I as a person eight years ago? What has changed about me? How do I believe I would change over so many years if I was this character in these circumstances?” Analyzing these minutiae are not just trivialities. Sometimes, they give us all we need to know about these characters. In this instance, Shanley seems to be suggesting that these feuding “lovers” possess their own fair shares of cowardice or pride or stubbornness, or perhaps all or none of those. But, for the audience member, that little bit of perspective in just a few words - “Eight years pass” - give us an indelible perspective of the actions onstage.
“Outside Mullingar” will be performed at the Carriage House Theater January 22nd, 23rd, 24th & January 29th, 30th, 31st & February 4th, 5th, 6th.
And, I’ll be having auditions for “Yankee Tavern” January 25, 26, and 27th at the Carriage House. I’ll need 3 men and 1 woman. Google it - it’s a grabber.
I’ll see you at intermission.
