Lieutenant of Inishmore

A Student Edition of McDonagh`s dramatic engagement with Republican paramilitaries, first produced by the RSC in 2000.
`There`s more than one way to skin a theatrical cat, and McDonagh`s chosen weapons are laughter and gore Pushing theatre to its limits, McDonagh is making a serious point a work as subversive as those Synge and O`Casey plays that sparked Dublin riots in the last century` Guardian `A brave satire Swiftianly savage and parodic with explicit brutal acting and lines which sing with grace and wit` Observer Who knocked Mad Padraic`s cat over on a lonely road on the island of Inishmore and was it an accident? He`ll want to know when he gets back from a stint of torture and chip-shop bombing in Northern Ireland: he loves his cat more than life itself. The Lieutenant of Inishmore is a brilliant satire on terrorism, a powerful corrective to the beautification of violence in contemporary culture, and a hilarious farce. It premiered at the RSC`s The Other Place, Stratford-upon-Avon, in May 2001. Commentary and notes by Patrick Lonergan