A Skull in Connemara

You can enjoy the B Street Theatre’s production of A Skull in Connemara for its abundant charms in plain sight. It’s a dark comedy, and almost any adult can relish this play’s humorous contrast of the living and the dead, the sacred and the scatological, and the polite lies people tell so they can get along, as compared with the bitter thoughts in their minds (which come out eventually, regardless).

Then again, if you’re a lover of theater, you will appreciate the playful quality of language and distinctive storytelling style that a good Irish writer (Martin McDonagh, in this case) can bring to a script. There’s also a mischievous impulse to upend polite society through outrageously funny (yet sad) situations, often tinged by alcohol.

If you’re a recovering literature major, you’ll further recognize that this play’s title comes from Beckett; that the two gravediggers (clearing old bones from the churchyard, bringing up skulls and discussing the dead) reference Hamlet; and that the second act celebrates Synge’s breakthrough Irish comedy from 1907, The Playboy of the Western World.

But you needn’t know any of those angles to appreciate the Equity cast: Stephanie McVay, Rowan Brooks, Gary Wright and Kevin Karrick. They’re all strong (even if the Irish accents waver slightly on occasion). Director Jerry Montoya can take pride in this one; the time flew by in a flash.