The Political Correctness Police seem to have a blind spot when it comes to the Irish. Racial slurs against African Americans, Asians, etc. are obviously right out. Heaven forbid you should question Caitlyn Jenner’s beauty or courage. And you can’t call the 350-pound, 5-foottall woman at 7-Eleven clutching a 64-ounce Double Gulp full of soda in one hand and three orders of nachos in the other “fat.” But jokes about
Archives for September 2015
Review: “Outside Mullingar”
John Patrick Shanley is a somewhat unusual writer; his academic record is rather sketchy. From the program: “John Patrick Shanley is from the Bronx. He was thrown out of St. Helena’s kindergarten. He was banned from St. Anthony’s hot lunch program for life. He was expelled from Cardinal Spellman High School. He was placed on academic probation by New York University and instructed to appear before a tribunal
Four Stars! “beautifully told and impeccably acted”
“Outside Mullingar” at BETC review: Hopeful, funny and fine A moving story, beautifully told and impeccably acted By Joanne OstrowDenver Post Theater Critic “Outside Mullingar” at the Boulder Ensemble Theatre Company sets a high bar for the company’s 10th season. The production is simply terrific: a moving story, beautifully told and impeccably acted. * * * * Stars | Drama Imagine a play set in the Irish countryside
Review: “Outside Mullingar”
From reading John Patrick Shanley’s Introduction to his play, in which he recounts his initial impressions from his first visit to Ireland in 1993, one would think his relatives and, indeed, all Irish mad. Gradually, though, Shanley was able to find a comfortable perspective from which to cajole enough recollections from his people to be able to ask himself “… how such wonderful eccentric folk as I saw around me
Love and Language Triumph in “Outside Mullingar”
John Patrick Shanley first visited his father’s birthplace in Ireland in 1993, and Outside Mullingar, which opened last year in New York, is a clear response to what he found there. We know this Ireland he depicts — rural, muddy and barren; we know of its isolated farms and the men forced to wait until middle age and beyond to inherit — unmarried, introverted, bitterly virginal. To this vision, Shanley adds