LONESOME WEST: till 15th March

LONESOME WEST: Martin McDonagh
New Vic, Newcastle Under Lyme
Tkts: 01782 717962

Runs: 2h 20m, one interval, till 15 March, 7.30 pm, signed Tues 4 March.
Review: Rod Dungate, 22 February 2003

Feckin' marvellous so it is.An discomforting devilish joy underpins both this production and the play. In a way not promising material: two brothers, constantly fighting, an effectual priest and a young girl fail to find direction in their lives. However, McDonagh's powerful writing, his vigour and his anger, matched by Monks's sharp direction result in a gripping, funny performance that leaves you inwardly weeping for the characters.

This is the second of McDonagh's trilogy set on the west coast of Ireland: in it he debunks a false myth of Irish folksy cuteness. His apparent anger may stem from his second generation Irishness (he lives in London), it may stem from the comfort English people derive from the folk image, or it may stem from his perception of Irish people's complicity in the myth. Wherever it comes it keeps his work buoyant while his writing skill ensures the drama is taut and many layered.

That one brother collects figurines of the saints is funny and a witty comment of Catholic values, that they are melted in a new cooker by the other brother is funnier still, that they eventually become the source of one brother trying to kill the other is not only a brilliant comic pay-off, but also a dagger stabbing the establishment church simultaneously in the back and front. This is how McDonagh's comedy works: nothing is there for one reason alone.

McDonagh carries his point, though, in the main, by the blinkered sight he gives his characters – the narrowness of their vision and their inability to find a better way. And worse, some manage to see beyond their little world, so their little world crushes them.

Sean O'Callaghan plays brother Coleman: he is a gun always about to fire, his anger which physically consumes him is terrifying. Paul Lloyd is Valene, the other brother: slighter, physically less strong his impishness wonderfully transforms to something much darker. Damian Kearney has a genuine warmth as the alcoholic priest, a man who eventually realises he has become little more than an empty shell. Kearney endears the priest to us, though we think him a fool. Alison Darling, Girleen, brings youthful sparkishness to the play but offers us, rightly, nothing as dangerously sentimental as an easy way out.

The desperate, unseen (by them) plight of these characters is encapsulated as the two brothers eventually come to the conclusion that 'fighting shows you care.' Chilling.

Girleen Kelleher: Alison Darling
Father Welsh: Damian Kearney
Valene Connor: Paul Lloyd
Coleman Connor: Sean O'Callaghan

Director: Chris Monks
Designer: Lis Evans
Fight Director: Renny Krupinski
Voice Coach: Mark Langley
Lighting: Daniella Beattie
Sound: James Earls-Davis

2003-02-23 13:57:25