The Lieutenant of Inishmore
Noel Coward Theatre, Aug 2, 2018.
What a brilliantly dark and bloody funny evening this unexpectedly turned out to be. The writing from Martin McDonagh (he of Three Billboards fame) + Michael Grandage directing + Aidan Turner and a great supporting cast make this.
This is the blood spattered story of “mad” Padraic who is too mad for the IRA, a member of the INLA (and they find him too mad), thinking of setting up alone as a splinter group of the splinter group. He’s played as a nuanced character — torturing drug pushers yet advising his victim to get the injuries he’s caused seen at the hospital.
He has one friend, his cat Wee Thomas. His only friend. And in the opening scene we see that he’s dead, brains on the table, seemingly run over. We see Padraic’s Dad and a local lad Davey, neither the sharpest knife in the draw, trying to figure out how they can avoid breaking this to Padriac in fear for their lives. The deeply disturbed and gruesome hilarity escalates from there.
I was curious to see how Aidan T would be on stage. Would this extremely attractive man’s acting match his good looks? Yes. He was absolutely superb.
I’ve heard he wants to do more on the London stage. Yes please.
The play itself is wonderfully constructed. It’s clever and the humour, whilst dreadfully black, is subtle and very, very funny. Excellent writing from Martin McDonagh.
Let’s face it the big draw here is the chance to see Turner on stage (one woman we met had travelled from Los Angeles just to see this!!! She’d done a similar trip last year to see Andrew Scott’s Hamlet). Turner delivers and does so in style.
4.5/5 Devilishly dark and funny.
