The Lieutenant of Inishmore

A Student Edition featuring a scene-by-scene summary, a commentary on the dramatic, social and political context, and on the themes, characters, language and structure of the play Questions for further study, notes on the words and phrases in the text and a further reading list all assist students and teachers of the play 'McDonagh, in his best play to date, offers a ... politically and dramatically coherent exposition of the way violence is glamorised and extremism infects people like a deadly virus.' Guardian Martin McDonagh has won various prizes for his plays including: The Laurence Olivier Award, Evening Standard Award, and Tony Award In 2008, McDonagh's screenplay for the film In Bruges was a critical and popular hit

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 actino 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