The eponymous "Irish curse" of the title of this funny and fast-moving play on stage in South Florida isn't politics or potatoes but the size of a penis. Well, of several penises.
Family legends and urban myths say Irish men are prone to a shortcoming in that area, according to Martin Casella's play, which manages to deal seriously with the social anguish and physical difficulties that can attend being smaller than average where it's assumed size matters.
The setting: A room in a Catholic church in Brooklyn where five Irish-American men meet weekly to address the problem, but really, as one puts it, to gripe. Enter the stranger, a recent immigrant from Ireland, who shakes things up. Not that some of these men need all that much arm-twisting. One of Casella's characters starts talking shortly into the play about his brother's suicide. In this 85-minute play there's no time to waste.
Direction by Avi Hoffman at Mosaic Theater is brisk; tech is terrific; and performances, spot-on throughout, induce both laughter and pathos. The men in the meeting room: Joseph (played by Ken Clement), a self-described genteel Savannah-born lawyer who's been in New York since law school and, since his wife left him (guess why), now is the single father of two girls; Rick (Ryan Didato), he of the suicidal brother, studies sports medicine in college and regales the others with tales of babe encounters; Stephen (Shane R. Tanner), a strapping, gay New York cop; Father Kevin (Barry Tarallo), who convenes the get-togethers but isn't necessarily a disinterested organizer; and Kieran (Todd Allen Durkin, who knows his way around a Dublin accent), a roofer since he arrived a few years ago and now in serious need of information.
There's no stinting on tech. Set by Douglas Grinn and lighting Dan Gelbmann evoke an all-purpose room of a certain age: folding chairs lean against a wall, watery light comes through the opaque window of a door, shadows from a window high up play on the floor. Matt Corey delivers pre-curtain music that calls to mind Irish drinking songs, and, during the play, there's a nice sound effect as an out-of-sight el rattles by overhead.
