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4th Wall Student Productions
presents darkly funny 'A Skull in Connemara'
by Jen Reeder
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| Tammy, played by Tara
Ivy Sheehan, consoles her brother Mairtin, played
by Stephen Juhl, during a graveyard scene in Fourth
Wall’s production of ‘A Skull in Connemara.’/Photo
by Todd Newcomer. |
With Halloween this weekend, it’s
appropriate to perform a black comedy about murder, grave
diggers and grave robbers. To this end, “A Skull
in Connemara,” by Fort Lewis College’s Fourth
Wall Student Productions, will show Oct. 30 and 31, and
Nov. 1, 6-8 at the Fort Lewis College Gallery Theatre.
The story, set in a small Irish village, revolves around
stoic grave digger Mick Dowd (Bernard Woisieffer) whose
wife was killed in a car accident when he was “drink
 driving”
seven years prior. Through his interaction with gossipy
Maryjohnny Rafferty (Kelleen Aragon) and her grandchildren,
assistant grave digger Mairtin (Stephen Juhl) and police
detective Tammy (Tara Ivy Sheehan), the audience learns
that much of the town suspects that Mick killed his wife
before the car accident. When he and Mairtin are hired
to exhume her body along with others to make room for
fresh corpses, they discover that it is missing from its
grave, and mayhem ensues.
Woisieffer, also a member of the Act Too Players, portrays
an understated Mick, and he pulls off the Irish accent
with aplomb. Juhl’s Mairtin is a fabulous foil for
Mick as his young and energetic yet hopelessly dimwitted
assistant. At one point in the graveyard scene, Mairtin
observes a corpse and asks the more experienced Mick,
“Where do their things go?” Mick convinces
the gullible Mairtin that priests cut off dead people’s
private parts and give them to children to feed to their
dogs (and that the children eat them in times of famine).
Mairtin goes running off to check with the priest as Mick
doubles over with laughter.
The performance heats up when Mick and Mairtin, drunk
on Irish moonshine, go Gallagher with sledgehammers on
skulls of recently extracted corpses. “This is more
fun than hamster cookin’!” Mairtin crows.
And then, “Is skull crackin’ more fun than
wife-into-wall drivin’, Mick?” Mick is upset
by the dig, but forgives him “since yer drunk as
Jesus.”
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Mick Dowd, played by Bernard
Woisieffer, argues with Tara Ivy
Sheehan and Kelleen Aragon prior to
signing a murder confession./Photo by
Todd Newcomer. |
Aragon’s performance adds to the play as she portrays
the gossip Maryjohnny, an overweight granny who cheats
at church bingo and then stops by Mick’s house for
a drink and gossip each evening. Sheehan’s Tammy
is appropriately suspicious and underhanded as an untalented
detective obsessed with getting promoted.
In the scenes in Mick’s house, the characters are
enhanced by “shadow” actors who pass between
an open hole in the fabric backdrop, shedding light on
the deeper emotions of the speakers. For example, if Maryjohnny
begins to lecture Mick, her shadow wags a finger in Mick’s
direction. But the shadows, which are not part of the
original script, are sometimes distracting and aren’t
used to confirm Mick’s guilt or innocence in the
final moments of the play – a wasted opportunity.
However, there is plenty to enjoy in “A Skull in
Connemara.” The script, by playwright Martin McDonagh,
interlaces black humor with gothic thriller. Plus, it’s
fun to hear Irish accents and colloquialisms, even the
Yoda-like sentence structure (“Just conversing are
we;” “A mighty fridge it was;” “Like
‘Hill Street Blues’ your job is”).
The play has an intimate feel, since it is performed
in the small theater at FLC. As such, audience members
might even get the chance to catch a skull fragment to
take home as a souvenir of an unusual evening of drama.
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