The Lieutenant of Inishmore

From May 2012

It's May already, although you wouldn't know it from the weather. I can't believe that it's almost the end of the Lyceum Theatre's 2011-12 season - it seems like no time since Wondrous Flitting bounced onto the stage during last year's festival. But at the end we are.

There was a time when I advocated closing the theatre to make way for luxury apartments. That was in the early 1990s when the Lyceum was under the stewardship of Ian Wooldridge. I felt that the programming was predictable and unadventurous: Shakespeare, Tennessee Williams, more Shakespeare & whatever classic Liz Lochead had decided to ruin by translating into Scots. Things have changed since then, me included.

Predictable and unadventurous are not words that could be used to describe this season's final offering, The Lieutenant of Inishmore by Martin McDonagh, a story about an Irish republican paramilitary splinter group and a cat. The humour is dark, the body count impressive, a blood-spattered mix of Reservoir Dogs & Father Ted. Peter Campion is frighteningly believable as the psychotic one-man terrorist cell Padraic. Liam Brennan as the not-quite-so-psychotic Christy deserves a mention too for yet another understated performance; I was sad to see him die in most unpleasant circumstances. And a nice turn as wannabe INLA member by recent RADA graduate Rose O'Loughlin

The only mystery about the play is: how on earth did they train the cat not to run into the audience? It's worth the ticket money for that alone.

The Lieutenant of Inishmore, Royal Lyceum Theatre, until 12th May