In July 1999, the Wedding Community Play was performed in Belfast. A much-celebrated event at the time, the Wedding Play took audiences into private houses inside Loyalist and Republican estates, then on to a public venue for the performance of a cross-community wedding. Gerri Moriarty has already written about some of the difficulties encountered in the production (Moriarty 2004). In this article, the author discusses issues of aesthetics, efficacy, expectation and reception, in relation to this performance and other community theatre projects developed in Northern Ireland since 1998. Then, the author discusses these issues in more detail with regard to a production of "The Playboy of the Western World" that took place in 2008, just outside Derry City, in the mass of working-class estates known as Greater Shantallow. Before discussing "The Playboy of the Western World," the author briefly frames the social context of applied theatre within Northern Ireland. (Contains 3 notes.)