If the Irish theatrical canon was a rolling meadow, it would be home to quite a few black sheep. One such example is The Lieutenant of Inishmore, a daring play written in 1994 by the notoriously incendiary Martin McDonagh.
As a writer, McDonagh has created a highly successful career for himself, having received a number of BAFTA, Academy, Golden Globe and Olivier awards, as well as various nominations for his work for stage and screen. Notable examples include the films In Bruges and Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri and stage plays such as The Pillowman and The Beauty Queen of Leenane.
Indeed, the play currently running at the Gaiety Theatre Dublin, The Lieutenant of Inishmore, earned McDonagh a Best New Comedy Laurence Olivier award in 2003. Its rise to international success and acclaim, however, was anything but linear.
After penning this chaotic tale of excessively ruthless freedom fighting and feline devotion, McDonagh offered it to many producing houses who had supported his previous work, such as the Royal Court and the National Theatre in London and Galway’s Druid. Alas, all three of them turned it down. It wasn’t until 2001, when the Royal Shakespeare Company decided to stage a production of the play in Stratford-upon-Avon, that McDonagh’s aptly named protagonist, Mad Padraic, was fully realised in his intended larger-than-life form.
Even then, the production could never truly evade scandal, as animal rights groups expressed concern over the possibility of a live cat being put on stage. In response, the Royal Shakespeare Company took it upon themselves to write to all ticket-holders providing content warnings and reassurance that “no cats or people” would be harmed in the show’s staging. Following this, the production toured the UK, the US and the wider world, even spending some time on Broadway, where it earned a Tony nomination for Best Play in 2006.
Flynn himself has a long-standing relationship with both McDonagh and his work tracing back to his professionally formative internship with Druid in 1996
While it’s true that the events of September 11th, 2001, saw a peaked interest in McDonagh’s satirical examination of devout terrorist mindsets and practices, the prospect of an Irish premiere at this point remained unfulfilled. While the Royal Shakespeare Company eventually broke the silence, bringing the play to Dublin’s Olympia Theatre in 2003 as part of the Dublin Theatre Festival, it wasn’t until Andrew Flynn directed its first Irish production in 2006 that The Lieutenant truly garnered respect in its native land.
Flynn himself has a long-standing relationship with both McDonagh and his work tracing back to his professionally formative internship with Druid in 1996, where he worked on The Beauty Queen of Leenane. In an article for the Irish Times ahead of his production of The Cripple of Inishmaan, Flynn wrote that “by March, and the end of that first Beauty Queen production, I knew I had to become a theatre director”.
So Flynn’s 2006 production was a highly anticipated one. How was the then “modern” Ireland going to react to McDonagh’s ironic take on bloodthirsty republicanism? To a proscenium framing of criminals who are too “mad” for even the IRA to take under their wing?
Moreover, the pertinent question hung in the air: was Ireland ready? And being a country that in many practical respects continued to grapple with questions of the border and the Troubles’ painful aftermath, was it fair to ask them to be? These questions were emphatically answered when the production received rave reviews and went on to complete two national tours.
How was the then “modern” Ireland going to react to McDonagh’s ironic take on bloodthirsty republicanism?
The very same questions are resuscitated now, however, as Flynn takes another stab at McDonagh’s controversial production this January. For the next few months, the Gaiety will watch the notorious “Mad Padraic” suspend his (un)professional life of torture-infliction and haphazard murder to attend to his beloved cat who, he’s told, is failing at home. Once again, blood will spill, the local rumour mill churn, triggers will be pulled and an unsuspecting cat will be doused in shoe polish.
Yet in 2020, some notes of McDonagh’s lyrical wit will chime differently. Even simply, re-reading the script, comments about falling beef prices, the exacerbated threat terrorism poses to a nation’s hallowed tourist industry and suppositions about the aesthetics of gender now carry fresh connotations against the backdrop of our contemporary headlines.
What remains steadfast for this production against the curious mapping of its production history, however, is its star-studded casting. McDonagh’s quips have over time rested on the lips of the likes of Domhnaill Gleeson, Alison Pill, Chris Pine and Poldark’s Aidan Turner. The 2020 Gaiety cast includes Paul Mescal, who stars in the BBC’s forthcoming Normal People, Alex Murphy of The Young Offenders fame and Aisling Kearns – who’s fresh from a run of Louise O’Neill’s Asking For It.
For those with a tough stomach, a macabre sense of humour or a bottomless theatrical curiosity, this is one production you shouldn’t let pass you by.
The Lieutenant of Inishmore began its run at the Gaiety Theatre Dublin on January 27th, and runs until March 14th. Tickets start at €18.50.
