"Home sweet home." These words are printed on a decoration adorning the wall of the house where most of the action in "The Lieutenant of Inishmore" takes place. Though set on a tiny island of Ireland, the descent into chaos sparked by the seemingly insignificant death of a cat creates a ridiculous - and very, very funny - world that audience members can't help but see themselves as living in, however different the circumstances may be.
This play, the latest from playwright Martin McDonagh, begins with Donny (John Lescault) and Davey (Matthew McGloin) inspecting a nigh-decapitated cat to make sure it's dead. This cat is purportedly the lifelong friend of disgruntled terrorist - and son of Donny - Padraic (Karl Miller), who rushes home and pledges to bring the kitty's killers - who he believes are Donny and Davey - to justice. The ensuing snafu, culminating in a bloodbath and Padraic's querulously hypocritical slaying of another cat, is a bizarrely absurd slice of life that, in all its exaggerated horror, is surprisingly real and rife with ribald humor.
The humor stems from antics of the characters, who are painted as caricatures, not of Irishmen, but of people in general. The accents and setting hardly detract from the universality of the play. The characters curse up a storm, and the sheer insanity of personal interest and conviction is lampooned to the fullest possible extent. Davey, for instance, hopes to save himself from the demoniac rage of a now-petless Padraic by using shoe polish to blacken his sister's cat in the hopes of deceiving the terrorist. Padraic, incensed by the death of his cat, shoots dead the shoe-polished replacement feline, chalking it up to its being mangy and, well, not his cat. This sort of insanity pervades the play, allowing a dark humor reminiscent of Edward Albee to permeate every exchange between characters.
Without strong performances, these character idiosyncrasies would have been lost in a mire of subtext and affected Irish accents. Thankfully, each actor delivered in spades. Karl Miller's portrayal of Padraic was a show-stealer, imbuing the terrorist with a schizophrenic split in his personalities. The cold killer and sensitive lover (first of cats, then of Mairead, Davey's sister, played by Casie Platt) are so starkly separate, and the transitions between so seamless, that Miller seems to play two very different characters on the stage. It is that strong differentiation that makes him so hilarious; he decides to undertake the brutal murder of his father and Davey (and then later the real culprits) as a way of avenging his cat's death, an irrationally incongruous set of actions. Meanwhile, Padraic's father, Donny, comes to life on stage courtesy of Jon Lescault. Donny limps about and curses up a storm, but perhaps is most notable for his outlandish tendency toward self-preservation. He noncommittally shrugs off Padraic's impending execution, as it means Padraic won't be killing him. He and Davey begrudgingly hack up corpses for Padraic and Mairead later in the show, but the griping is due to Padraic's and Mairead's unwillingness to help dispose of the bodies.
Lunacy characterizes the whole show, which serves as an excellent reminder of the selfishness, hypocrisy and hyperbolic explosiveness that every person sees in his own life, even if it doesn't involve hacking corpses and shooting out eyes. Though the play only runs through Nov. 16, it serves as a humorous and cathartic experience for any (mature) audience member. "The Lieutenant of Inishmore" is the perfect way to start the post-election season - with a bang, a shout and a hacksaw for cutting up those pesky corpses.
You can reach this writer at thescene@theeagleonline.com.
