Gut Check

Through March 13, $25-$32, Plays & Players Theatre, 1714 Delancey St., 215-218-4022, theatreexile.org.

by David Anthony Fox

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Published: Mar 2, 2011

AMONG THE EIGHT plays (by six different companies) that comprise Philadelphia's ongoing Irish Theatre Festival, three are by Martin McDonagh. It's a special distinction that signals McDonagh has risen to the top of the heap — in popular appeal, certainly, and with many critics, too.

His distinctive mix of dark humor, full-throttle violence and folksiness side-by-side (or, given his propensity for body parts, cheek-by-jowl) with contemporary politics feels right for our disjointed world. And though a couple of McDonagh's more recent plays are not set in Ireland, there remains something profoundly Irish about his sensibility and style.

It would be difficult to imagine anything more Irish than Lieutenant of Inishmore, which may also be McDonagh's most commercially successful play.

In a tiny cottage in small village, Donny mourns the demise of Wee Thomas, the house cat he cares for but is really the special pride of Donny's son, Padraic. (Note to the squeamish: The battered corpse of Wee Thomas is featured prominently on stage, and it's the first of many images that are not for the feint of heart.) But Donny's grief is tempered with fear — Padraic, a gun-toting member of the Irish National Liberation Army, is easily capable of eye-for-an-eye comeuppance, and is likely to unleash unbridled rage at whoever did away with the poor little kitty.

It's not easy to describe Lieutenant, and it's a piece that demands to be seen with all the surprises left intact. So let's leave it at this: The play explores an event and its retribution in a world where family, friendship and world politics are bloody battlegrounds.

Lieutenant is often hilarious, and it's also shockingly gory. McDonagh revels in Tarantino-like excesses, which doubtless has won him many fans, but it also puts off a lot of people (some of them critics). To me, the real brilliance of his work lies in the character writing. These are more than comic archetypes: They are complex people who are at once kindhearted and cruel, and whose beliefs — religious, nationalistic, personal — run deep. The specifics of Irish politics may be hard for us to follow, but McDonagh has something very powerful to say about terrorism that transcends any one culture.

Or so it seemed to me when I saw Lieutenant on Broadway in 2006, an evening of jaw-dropping, edge-of-your seat theater. The current production at Theatre Exile, often skillfully directed (by Matt Pfeiffer) and clearly pleasing its audience, doesn't pack the same punch. In part, it may be a matter of time — the last five years have brought a lot more McDonagh, and smart and clever as he is, his bag of tricks isn't bottomless. But it's also the case that here, a couple of critical performances are more workmanlike than incendiary, and that in general the focus is on comedy without always finding the frightening fervor at the core. Elena Bossler, who plays Mairead, the play's only female character, comes closest — when she intones sad Irish political ballads, there's a wildness in her eyes that's gripping and scary. Much of the action is also played quite far upstage, which reduces some of the in-your-face-ness.

For those who haven't seen the play before, this production captures a lot of the comedy — but the fear factor and the deeper undertones aren't etched as sharply as they could be.

Through March 13, $25-$32, Plays & Players Theatre, 1714 Delancey St., 215-218-4022, theatreexile.org.

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