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Theatre listings > The Lonesome West. - Tour. The third in the Leenane Trilogy. Mull Theatre have also revived The Beauty Queen of Leenane and A Skull In Connemara. Playwright - Martin McDonagh. Director - Alasdair McCrone. Designer - Robin Peoples. Assistant Director - Kirsty Baker. Costume - Andrea McPhail. Sound Designer - Martin Low. Company - Mull Theatre Company Company Website. Cast - here . 2005 Tour Dates and Times - here . Seen to review at Tron Theatre Glasgow on 14 June 2005. Run Time - 2 hours 15 mins including a 15 mins interval. Reviewer - Thelma Good. Great time fighting with filial feelings. Ah siblings! Sometimes the bloodlines and rivalry can be all the siblings and those who know them see. In Martin McDonagh's final play in The Leenane Trilogy, The Lonesome West, Coleman and Valene are locked in a fierce struggle, not for a parent's love, their mum's long gone and their father just buried, but to be the brother who's on top. It's a play full of that attractive Irish trait, battlling on through tragedy. When the play opens Coleman's just back from the burial and, when the priest shows up, Valene's poteen gets raided. Stephen Clyde's Coleman gradually lets us into the complexity and danger of the brother who initially draws sympathy, it's his brother Valene who's inherited the farm and everything. As the later arriving, fibreglass saint collecting, Valene, Alan Steele suggests well a man who has had to learn to be brighter that nature intended, it's just a shame the Irish accent drifts to Scottish tones at times. Trying to draw the brawling brothers together Father Welsh, Kevin Lennon isn't too rooted in his calling, he swears nearly as much as his flock and is troubled by rumours that some parishoners have had convenient bereavements. The hardness of his life is an inescapable part of this play. In a tender scene, beautifully played by Lennon and Beth Marshall as Girleen, we are reminded that priests give up normal affections when they gain a dog collar. Marshall's the feisty Girleen, a young woman dancing on the powerful edge of sluttishness but never becoming one. But it's Lennon's performance as the flawed priest that most drives and enriches the whole play, though the whole cast give much under Alastair McCrone's taunt direction. McDonagh's other Leenane plays examine relationships between us but The Lonesome West strongly examines what can be forgiven, what is the difference between God and the humans we are told he cares for, and the extraordinary belief that he, through his representatives on earth, can provide forgiveness for nearly every awful action. It will make you laugh uproariously but also spare a thought for the awfulness of being the person other humans confess to and seek succour from. A person who has agreed to find his strength and comfort not in deep human encounters but in divine consolation. Mull Theatre may be small but their productions are frequently beautifully packaged and delivered to feed the mind, provoke laughter and understanding and provide notable theatrical gems - this production is definitely one. © Thelma Good 14 June 2005 - Published on EdinburghGuide.com EdinburghGuide.com also has a review of the first of the trilogy, The Beauty Queen of Leenane when it was produced by the Tron Theatre, Glasgow. Cast - Coleman Connor - Stephen Clyde, Valene Connor - Alan Steele, Father Welsh - Kevin Lennon and Girleen - Beth Marshall. Poteen - Irish name for illicitly distilled spirit. 2005 Tour Details of Mull Theatre's production of The Lonesome West . Tour continues 14 - 18 June at 8pm Glasgow Tron Theatre 0141 552 4267. 23 - 25 June at 7:45pm Dundee Rep 01382 223530. Tour ends. Theatre Editor, Thelma Good's e-mail is thelma@edinburghguide.com Although every effort has been taken to ensure the accuracy of the information presented in these pages, no responsibility can be accepted for any errors or omissions. Theatre listings >
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