THE LIEUTENANT OF INISHMORE
By Martin McDonagh
Directed by Chip Decker
Actor's Theatre of Charlotte
September 19 - October 11, 2008
Review by Tim Baxter-Ferguson
It would be difficult to imagine a darker and more violent comedy than Martin McDonagh's savage exploration of Irish terrorism. This whimsical treatise on blood, guts, and pet ownership challenges the audience from start to finish.
The crux of the play revolves around the apparent murder of a black cat named Wee Thomas. Wee Thomas may have been run over by the long-haired and imbecilic Davey (played with appropriate vacantness by Ryan Stamey). Davey brings the mangled remains of the cat to the equally idiotic, though much older, Donny. Donny is played with bewildered crotchetiness by Craig Spradley. It is through the perceptions of these two dim bulbs that the audience experiences most of the play. They are the Lenny and Squiggy of McDonagh's world, always on the periphery of the action, but never the cause. That is until Davey apparently kills the cat of Donny's son Padraic, a man so insane he was kicked out of the IRA and forced to join a splinter group, the INLA.
Padraic is played with both menace and sentimentality by actor Brett Gentile. We discover Padraic's maniacal love for Wee Thomas when Donny (hoping to break the news of the cat's death to him over some time) tells him that the cat is not eating so well. Padraic, who is just about to cut off a man's nipple with a rusty blade, is heartbroken enough to be distracted.
The play revolves around Donny and Davey trying to deal with the death of Wee Thomas and all its repercussions. One particular scene where the two try to disguise an orange cat to look black with the use shoe polish is particularly funny and well handled. The cast is uniformly solid with a particularly effective performance given by the sole female in the cast, Kristy Morley. Ms. Morley plays the young wannabe terrorist, Mairead who is known throughout the small island of Inishmore as the one who blinded a number of cows with a BB gun.
The unit set by Stan Peal makes good use of the theatre's oddly narrow dimensions. The island life is suggested by the charmingly rustic background and provides a nice counterpoint to the violence onstage.
The numerous effects in the show are appropriate to the play and never seem out of place. The last scene is particularly demanding (and I won't give it away here), but suffice it to say, that anything you may have seen in the “Saw” movies would not hold a candle to what you'll witness from a few feet away on the stage.
McDonagh's plays demand a certain sort of maniacal glee in performance that I never truly felt was there. There seemed to be a conscious choice to play down the maliciousness of the characters; to explore the mundanity of a world where bombing chip shops is an every day activity and where a daughter is asked by her mother on the way out of the house to “try and not kill any kids.” It's an appropriate choice, but I think some of the ferocity of the humor is lost.
Still, this is a brave production and an innovative one. It is confidently directed and acted and presents its gorier aspects without apology. It is worth seeing for that alone. It is a Quentin Tarantino wet dream on stage and if that gets you interested, then this one's for you. Review by Tim Baxter-Ferguson
Tim Baxter-Ferguson is an associate professor of Theatre at Limestone College and Chair of that program. He is a resident playwright at Theatre Charlotte and has had his plays produced throughout the United States and Canada.
