The Lieutenant of Inishmore

(Paperback)

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'There's more than one way to skin a theatrical cat; and McDonagh's chosen weapons are laughter and gore... Pushing theatre to its limits, McDonagh is making a serious point... a work as subversive as those Synge and O'Casey plays that sparked Dublin riots in the last century' Guardian

'A brave satire... Swiftianly savage and parodic... with explicit brutal actino and lines which sing with grace and wit' Observer

Who knocked Mad Padraic's cat over on a lonely road on the island of Inishmore and was it an accident He'll want to know when he gets back from a stint of torture and chip-shop bombing in Northern Ireland: he loves his cat more than life itself.

The Lieutenant of Inishmore is a brilliant satire on terrorism, a powerful corrective to the beautification of violence in contemporary culture, and a hilarious farce. It premiered at the RSC's The Other Place, Stratford-upon-Avon, in May 2001.

Commentary and notes by Patrick Lonergan

Reviews

"Gleeful, gruesome play about political terrorism in rural Ireland, which won the Olivier Award for best comedy...Appallingly entertaining...Enlightening...Lieutenant is brazenly and unapologetically a farce. But it is also a severely moral play, translating into dizzy absurdism the self-perpetuating spirals of political violence that now occur throughout the world." --The New York Times

"A cautionary fairy tale for our toxic times. In its horror and hilarity, it works as an act of both revenge and repair, turning the tables on grief and goonery, and forcing the audience to think about the unthinkable." --The New Yorker

"There's more than one way to skin a theatrical cat; and McDonagh's chosen weapons are laughter and gore Pushing theatre to its limits, McDonagh is making a serious point a work as subversive as those Synge and O'Casey plays that sparked Dublin riots in the last century." --Guardian

"A brave satire Swiftianly savage and parodic with explicit brutal actino and lines which sing with grace and wit." --Observer

Author Bio

Martin McDonagh's first play The Beauty Queen of Leenane wasnominated for six Tony awards, of which it won four, and the LaurenceOlivier Award. In 2006, Martin McDonagh won an Oscar for his short filmSix Shooter, and in 2008 his film In Bruges was a critical and popular hit.