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<\/a>While Rosemary (Carla Harting) stands outside in the rain so she can smoke (she claims to like cigarettes better than people), Tony proposes leaving the ranch to Anthony\u2019s American cousin. While Aiofe stands up for Anthony (Manny Fernandes), and Anthony attempts to bring Rosemary inside, we receive the backstory from the elders.<\/p>\n As it turns out, there is much more to it than they know. The ensuing scenes, a year later and four years later, reveal the truth and the depth of Rosemary and Anthony\u2019s feelings. She is a seething kettle of passion, and he, as she says, an inept lump. The two are fascinating receptacles of repressed longings and unspoken truth, as well as victims of the hard environment and parental insensitivity.<\/p>\n In addition to his pitch-perfect company, Salovey gathers a terrific design team for \u201cOutside Mullingar.\u201d Giulio Perrone\u2019s scenic design morphs into three distinct cottages replete with kitchen appliances and sitting areas. It also suggests porches, barns and fields. Sherrice Mojgani\u2019s lighting design evokes the landscape, and Anastasia Pautova\u2019s costumes, the sort of every day and dress-up wear that church-going people close to the land affect. David Scott\u2019s sound design and the three-piece Irish band (Jim Mooney, Alicia Previn and Richard Tibbits) add much color.<\/p>\n I can\u2019t imagine a better company or more sensitive direction. All the actors are sublimely enmeshed in their imperfect, cantankerous, yet loveable characters. None goes too far. This is an absolutely delicious production. The reconciliation scene between Tony and Anthony is one of the best father-son scenes ever witnessed, and the working out of the younger couple\u2019s long denied truth is both hilarious and heartbreaking.<\/p>\n Due to the magic of Shanley\u2019s poetry and the music of his language, we care so much we dread the denouement. I felt much the same about Shanley\u2019s Italian family in the film, \u201cMoonstruck.\u201d Now, he\u2019s returned to his own, Irish roots. His description of how that felt is reprinted in the Rep\u2019s program from an article Shanley wrote in The New York Times.<\/p>\n<\/a><\/a>