Bernard Mendillo

But One of Them Is Irish Bernard Mendillo

BUT ONE OF THEM IS IRISH is a comedy about loyalty. When the play opens, life is as it should be. Joe Parliamo is happily making pizza and talking- and talking, and Maria Buonanova and Maria O'Reilly-the Two Marias-teach school and practice medicine, respectively. True, Joe's silent partner, Kevin Lynch, feels he's being punished -but that's normal for Kevin. And Joe and Kevin have happy, if uncertain, relationships with the Two Marias. On this day, there is a new customer in the restaurant-Maria Albanotte. She's a bit on the mysterious side-a shy poet, with an undetermined past who, nonetheless, manages to become the Third Maria. But then news arrives. In Italy, Joe's great uncle Hannibal had died. And Hannibal's great nephew, Rocco DiSanto, is arriving in America that very day! Why? What does he want? Could it have to do with money that Hannibal put up for the restaurant, two generations ago? In the midst of their speculations, the door bursts open and in steps Rocco DiSanto-"Rocco Full of Grace," as Maria Albanotte would say. Rocco carries a rolled-up chart, of sorts, that will eventually be displayed. On it, is information that will change everyone's lives. The six of them soon reveal to each other and, more importantly, to themselves, not only their lives, but their very souls. Being loyal to your heritage. Being loyal to your family. To your friends. And-perhaps most importantly-to yourself. That's what's discovered, as our six friends eat calzones, drink il vino rosso, and laugh and love-all in an hour or two, in a small restaurant, on one afternoon of their lives.