For the second year running, GableStage in Coral Gables ends its season with a Martin McDonagh play. In 2006 it was the hilarious and horrifying The Pillowman. Now it's the equally funny and unpredictable The Lieutenant of Inishmore.
The rocket action of The Lieutenant of Inishmore is set in western Ireland, where London-born McDonagh spent childhood summers. It's 1993, during the heat of The Troubles over Northern Ireland. Igniting the tale is the demise of a cat frequently referred to as "wee Thomas." He is the favored pet of Padraic, a volatile terrorist apparently thrown out of the Irish Republican Army for being too violent. Was Thomas the victim of an accident or of an execution? Either way, Padraic's friends fear his reaction.
The answer for buddies Donny and Davey: a dye job for another neighborhood cat. Add to this a longtime grudge match between short-fused Padraic and eye-patched Christy; a 16-year-old girl, Mairead, with a cause or two of her own; and the possibility of buckets of blood, and a theatrically good time is had under the direction of Joseph Adler.
Ken Clement and Erik Fabregat as Donny and Davey lead a terrific cast that includes Todd Allen Durkin as Padraic and, as Christy, Stephen G. Anthony, who gets the difficult Belfast accent right.
