written by martin mcdonagh
directed by les waters
limited season | roda theatre
april 17–may 24, 2009
Extended through May 24
Running time: 2 hours
including one 15 minute intermission
the play
April is the cruelest—and most hilarious—month, when Les Waters lets loose with another shocking script from Martin McDonagh. In 2007, the Obie Award-winning director scored a direct hit with his extended run of The Pillowman; since then, the Oscar Award-winning author released his first feature film, In Bruges. Now Berkeley Rep reenlists these seasoned artists for another vicious comedy. The Lieutenant of Inishmore employs explosive dialogue and a perfectly oiled plot that is brutal, bloody, yet irresistibly funny. As part of an I.R.A. splinter group, Padraic thinks nothing of murdering and mutilating his enemies—but the sudden death of his beloved cat leaves him heartbroken. Amidst the comedy and carnage, McDonagh delivers cutting commentary on the endless cycle of violence that engulfs our world.
the players
Martin McDonagh was nominated for an Oscar and a Golden Globe this year for his first feature film, In Bruges. He already earned an Oscar for his short film Six Shooter, four Tony nominations for Best Play and England’s prestigious Olivier Award for The Pillowman. The New Yorker places him on the highest plane of playwrights, pointing out that he’s the “first dramatist since Shakespeare to have four works professionally produced on the London stage in a single season!”
Les Waters most recently directly the world premiere of In the Next Room (or the vibrator play), a new play commissioned by Berkeley Rep and seen first by our audiences. Les will restage In the Next Room (or the vibrator play) on Broadway to open this fall. His shows have ranked among the Top 10 Plays of 2007 in Time Magazine, 2006 in the New York Times and 2005 in Time Out New York. He won an Obie Award for Big Love. His recent hits here at Berkeley Rep, where he serves as associate artistic director, include The Glass Menagerie with Rita Moreno, TRAGEDY: a tragedy and Martin McDonagh’s The Pillowman.
the buzz
“Gasps and laughter fill the house simultaneously. This is shock not for the sake of awe, but as a hilariously timely look at man’s inhumanity to man—and cats…The twists and surprises in McDonagh’s text—every one of them earned—keep building the comic tension. [Director Les] Waters playfully underscores the humor with an unexpected flash of canary yellow and the ever more inventive gore of Stephen Tolin’s special effects as love sprouts amid the bodies.”—San Francisco Chronicle
“A savagely funny comedy of errors, cats and carnage that will have you howling with laughter, not to mention pity and fear, from start to finish…One of the most viciously witty, deeply entertaining and strangely cathartic experiences to be had in ages. Only in a world as dark and menacing as our own could a farce about terrorism be this laugh-out-loud hysterical.”—San Jose Mercury News
“A bloody triumph…a show that has you laughing uproariously from beginning to end…An astonishingly adept cast (not to mention the special effects), make this a show Berkeley Rep fans will be talking about for seasons to come. Those who see it will have a hard time believing what they have seen, and those who only hear about it will have serious doubts that something this bloody can be brought to the stage, let alone draw huge laughs. But it can, and it does.”—Bay Area News Group
“Best bloody play I ever saw…the more outrageously over the top it became as the bizarre evening progressed, the funnier it was…no play I’ve seen in years of theatergoing begins to approach the mad daring of Inishmore. Put simply, this is the first farce about terrorism in the history of the whole wide beautiful world…Its singular playwright has us laughing at our blackest fears.”—New York Observer
“It’s perversely amusing and alarmingly real. Audience members regularly scream in shock…His special genius is creating the onstage moment that is simultaneously appalling and funny, macabre and ridiculous, forcing you to wince, then laugh, and then wince about what you’re laughing at.”—Washington Post
“Gleeful and macabre…McDonagh bravely pushes ugliness to the extreme. As the river of blood becomes a sea, dripping down over the lip of the stage[,] The Lieutenant of Inishmore is a sort of cautionary fairy tale for our toxic times.”—The New Yorker
“Razor sharp…This is a terrific play about a serious subject that’s touched with a Monty Pythonesque insanity.”—London Guardian
“Appallingly entertaining…please turn off your political correctness monitor along with your cell phone…Blood winds up on pretty much every surface in The Lieutenant of Inishmore, Martin McDonagh’s gleeful, gruesome play about political terrorism in rural Ireland, which won the Olivier Award (the British equivalent of the Tony) for best comedy. The red stuff is splashed, spattered and smeared over walls, floors, furniture, clothes, skin and cat’s fur. The fur is the main thing. For it is a mutilated cat that sets off the Euripidean cycle of murderous revenge that occupies two fast hours of hit-and-run traffic on the stage…All that’s left is for the production to keep stepping on the gas, until it runs into one of those twisted snares of an ending that are Mr. McDonagh’s specialty…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…some of the sharpest subversion of classic theatrical talk since the heyday of Joe Orton.”—New York Times
plan to arrive early
Take in the Irish charm—The Pogues playing in the lobby; Bloody Marys, Nutty Irishmen and Guinness at our café counter; plus cool photos of the real Inishmore. Bring us a picture of your cat for our “Wall of Cats” and we’ll cut you a $1 break on a Guinness!
multimedia
See the trailer—the critics are gushing
from the blog
Guns are Dangerous
The guns onstage are real…and the actors never forget it.
With, matter, cat
Hear an interview with Dialect Coach Lynne Soffer about the accents of Inishmore.
Making an Entrance
If you’re only going to be in one scene, it had better be memorable.
Mmm…shoe polish
You never know what you’re going to find when you reach into the fridge.
New Business
Production meetings can be serious business, but the business is a play after all.
Press Photos
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