The Lieutenant of Inishmore

From the writer of Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, Sydney’s New Theatre presents comes Martin McDonagh’s blood-curdling farce The Lieutenant of Inishmore for a limited season from 26 April 2018.

Ruthless enforcer Padraic Osbourne is considered too crazy for the IRA and he’s sorely trying the patience of his INLA comrades. Padraic cares about one thing, and one thing only – and it’s not the fight for Irish independence. It’s his little black cat, Wee Thomas.

When he learns that his beloved pet has been killed, Padraic rushes home to the island of Inishmore, much to the relief of the Belfast drug-pusher whose nipples he was about to remove. But as Padraic pursues revenge, and bodies pile up in his wake, his soft spot for Wee Thomas may prove to be his downfall.

This brazen and unapologetically blood-curdling farce combines comedy and violence in a darkly funny portrait of rivalries among terrorists for whom killing, torturing and bombing are just day-jobs. New Theatre is very excited to be bringing this outrageous black comedy back to Sydney stages, where the blood was last splattered at Belvoir in 2003, marking our third production of a McDonagh play.

Martin McDonagh is an award-winning playwright, director and screenwriter. Though born and brought up in England, his Irish heritage and childhood holidays spent in Galway have been a huge influence on his work. As a director/screenwriter, his films include Six Shooter (2004), In Bruges (2008), Seven Psychopaths (2012), and most recently, the award-winning Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri (2017).

As a playwright, his first six plays were all set on the west coast of Ireland: The Leenane Trilogy – (The Beauty Queen of Leenane (New Theatre, 2003), A Skull in Connemara, and The Lonesome West); and The Aran Island Trilogy – (The Cripple of Inishmaan, The Lieutenant of Inishmore and the never-produced The Banshees of Inisheer), established McDonagh as a major voice in English-language theatre.

His first non-Irish play was The Pillowman (New Theatre, 2013) that was set in a non-specified totalitarian state; A Behanding in Spokane was his first set in America; and Hangmen was set in England. A Very Very Very Dark Matter, set in Copenhagen, is due to open later this year.

“One of the greatest and most improbable comedies of the decade.” – The Guardian

Director: Deborah Mulhall Featuring: Lloyd Allison-Young, Michael Becker, Alice Birbara, Steve Corner, Angus Evans, Patrick Holman, James McCrudden, Nicholas Sinclair Set Designer: Tom Bannerman Lighting Designer: Priyanka Martin Sound Designer: Patrick Eades Vision Designer: Alex Rowe Voice/Dialect Coach: Gavin Leahy Assistant Director: Mark G Nagle Props Maker: Scott Layton Robertson Stage Manager: Gundega Lapsa Assistant Stage Managers: Che Walsh- Kemp, Chantelle von Appen, Victoria Lewis Sound Assistant: Patrick Blacker Operators: Ole Borch, Becky Matthews