Playwright: Christian O'Reilly. At: Northlight Theatre at the North Shore Center for the Arts, 9501 Skokie Blvd. in Skokie. Tickets: 847-673-6300; www.northlight.org; $25-$75. Runs through: April 13
In the Ireland depicted by plays exported to the United States, it is always the mid-20th century. The dynamic in this sweet tale of golden-year romance is universal, but also distinctly old-world. In our society today, Christian O'Reilly's elderly couple, whose animal companions serve them as both totems and factotums, would be beset by social workers and AARP reps nudging them toward quasi-intimate relationships while impeding the leisure and privacy necessary for such alliances to blossom.
Our setting is an appropriately cozy village where, even in the author's "present" ( circa 2010 ), you hear no mention of senior-citizen centers or Internet cafes. Dan is a retired blue-collar bachelor who sorely misses the now-deceased woman whom he loved for 30 years, his grief so inconsolable that he vows to join her in the afterlifeonce he ascertains that his faithful terrier, Chapatti, will be comforted by a good home. Betty is a likewise spouseless home-care nurse to an invalid dowager and a swarm of purring feline co-residents. One day, Dan and Betty cross paths, literally, at that hub of pet owners' social activities, the veterinarian's office. The dog-man later helps the cat-lady cope with a crisis, leading to disclosure of personal histories, after which Betty helps Dan cope with his lingering loss, leading to more secrets coming to light, and if you can't see where this is going, you need a lesson in Birds and Bees.
A hazard of two-actor dialogues is the often- unavoidable propensity for one character to tread water while the other progresses. One can sense O'Reilly striving to balance the verbal flow between these contrasting personalities, resulting in a few too many graveside apostrophes before the underlying source of Dan's regrets is revealed. The ruse by which Betty corners Dan into deciding his futurea regency-romp charade mandating the assistance of hitherto-unwilling auxiliary personnelalso grows protracted reaching its anticipated resolution.
Oh, but who cares when you have John Mahoney and Penny Slusher at their most charming, lending their talentswell-honed by BJ Jones' savvy directionto a play calculated for appeal to aging baby-boomers, to dog and cat lovers, and to anyone claiming Irish ancestry? As with Northlight's 2013 Stella and Lou, the play's spare scenic requirements also render it attractive to theaters with small budgets and those with core ensembles ofahem!mature actors.