INISHMORE REVIEW 4/22 ( no spoilers)

[dylanjackson]

Posted: 4/23/06 at 7:21pm

Saw the matinee. full cast.

THE BEST PLAY OF SEASON. This production is much needed on broadway. The ending was AMAZING and if you see it...dont tell anyone!!! All the performances were brilliant and Allison Pill was a standout. Act Two makes you want to scream and you're on the edge of your seat at every moment of this play. Another standout was the music. I love how it continued the momentum of the play.

Note- I feel sorry for people who have to clean up the set after the show. When they walked on after the curtain call..they looked miserable.

[LaCageAuxFollesFan2]

Posted: 4/23/06 at 7:35pm

Can't really say that I agree...Saw the performance a few nights ago. I know there has been much hype for this play, and I had some of the same feelings I had when I saw The Pillowman last year - his writing just isn't for me. I believe this years top contenders for the Tony for Best Play will be THE HISTORY BOYS & RABBIT HOLE! Here is MY review:


Upon waking up from a restless night of sleep, filled with the most bizarre and demented dreams a human could conjure, the ache of agitation usually overtakes the want and need to know anymore. The same can be said about any Martin McDonagh play; especially his latest chilling and utterly disturbing play, “The Lieutenant of Inishmore.” In classic McDonagh form the audience must forgo good storytelling in order to endure bells, whistles, and moments of utter disgust. “Inishmore,” now playing nightly at Broadway’s Lyceum Theatre, while extremely alarming and at times even more upsetting than last seasons “The Pillowman,” is a tedious look into the psyche of one’s character that goes nowhere very slowly.



One thing McDonagh does here that he didn’t even try to do with “The Pillowman” is mask the visceral alarm and disgust one may feel during this play with uproarious laughter – making him not an excellent playwright, but the ultimate master of disguise. If you are part of the troops who cares to rough it out, be prepared - this is not your mother’s bedtime story! David Wilmot plays Padraic, a toenail slicer of drug pushers. The story unfolds with determination as Wilmot’s Padraic receives a cell phone message from his father (Peter Gerety) just as he is about to start removing more than just toenail’s from his latest victim (Jeff Binder). A missing umph during the first act continues into the second and makes “Inishmore” vulnerable, and at times snooze inducing. And while Padraic and his gang (portrayed with every ounce of realism they could bring to the script by Andrew Connolly, Dashiell Eaves and Brian D'Arcy James) torment, persecute, and attack they think of it as their occupation, and theaudience of today thinks:What the Hell?!?! Thanks in large part to Michael Chybowski’s lighting and Scott Pask’s set design, McDonagh’s play is physically produced masterfully and helps masquerade the evenings faults brilliantly.



While audience members are bamboozled into thinking they have witnessed a thought provoking and poignant series of insights - even as one leaves the theatre, there is much disdain about recommending the truly unsettling and upsetting, eh, play that McDonaugh and director Wilson Milam bring forth.



If your stomach is queasy, don’t expect the downright terrifying events to ease those pangs or else a trip to the theatre’s lavatory will be in store. On the other hand, if those gruesomely portrayed sequences are the soul purpose of purchasing a ticket, I recommend a trip to your nearest Blockbuster to rent your favorite scary movie! “The Lieutenant of Inishmore” doesn’t really raise question’s, it just raises the point within itself that camouflaged storytelling does not necessarily equal a good fortune. But if you are a fan of McDonaugh’s, god knows there are plenty of you out there - go look at the freaks – before they’re antiques! Broadway just might put this piece out to pasture sooner than it ever would have in an off-Broadway extended run.

[mabel]

Posted: 4/23/06 at 7:44pm

And while Padraic and his gang (portrayed with every ounce of realism they could bring to the script by Andrew Connolly, Dashiell Eaves and Brian D'Arcy James) torment, persecute, and attack they think of it as their occupation, and theaudience of today thinks:What the Hell?!?!

They're terrorists. What are you talking about?!?!?

[WithoutATrace]

Posted: 4/23/06 at 7:47pm

I saw it yesterday afternoon and enjoyed it. Yes, the scenes in Act 2 are extremely graphic and violent so if you are not used to that, I would say stay away. However, the ending was fabulous. Excellent acting all around.

[mabel]

Posted: 4/23/06 at 7:51pm

See, I'm usually super-squeamish when it comes to violence in movies, but I didn't really have any problem at all with Inishmore. Go figure, since it's probably more gory than most violent films out there. I conveniently used the guy's head in front of me to block some stuff out. For the most part, it just made me squirm in my seat, but in a sickly thrilling way, not an "I really need to run out of here, but I paid money for this so I'm staying, dammit" sort-of way. Does that make any sense?

Updated On: 4/23/06 at 07:51 PM

[LaCageAuxFollesFan2]

Posted: 4/23/06 at 8:01pm

I just don't understand why anyone would want to pay money and sit through watching terrorists doing these types of things. After a war on terrorism continues, I personally don't want to watch one on stage. I understand it is a throughly educational piece and MM gets his point across probably in the first half hour of the play, but as far as a play that entertained me and I would reccomend, INISHMORE just isn't it for me.

That said, I do understand how some can be attracted to such a work. But a Broadway Play...I have my Doubts, even with the great reviews it will recieve again...just how long this could run on Broadway.

IMHO, History Boys & Rabbit Hole (although the same could be said for them and their dealings with grief) were quintesential theatre and Inishmore just seemed like a joke to me. But Beauty is in the eye of the Beholder, so if this is youre type of play...go for it. Just not mine.

[mabel]

Posted: 4/23/06 at 8:09pm

While I can see why you didn't like it, it's not as if it was some sort of glorification of terrorism. I would almost venture to say that that with the world's currant climate, a play like this that points out how ridiculous terrorism is and how pointless such acts of violence are, makes Inishmore all the more timely.

[LaCageAuxFollesFan2]

Posted: 4/23/06 at 8:21pm

And I can agree with you, but most of us already know how f**king rediculous terrorism is to begin with, why hit us over the head with it in a supposed entertainment piece. It just wasn't what I wanted to see after a stressful work week. Admire it a bit, but didn't like it.

[Yankeefan007]

Posted: 4/23/06 at 8:24pm

You're supposed to suspend your belief system. It's entertainment, meant to be taken lightly.

[LaCageAuxFollesFan2]

Posted: 4/23/06 at 9:05pm

i know, i know, i know...but i just wasn't entertained.