#the Lieutenant of Inishmore

[gleesonarchive]

A young Domhnall Gleeson, David Wilmot and Alison Pill during the 60th Annual Tony Awards 'Meet The Nominees' Conference! HQ.

📸 Jemal Countess (17.05.2006)

[turneradora]

2018 During the Lieutenant of Inishmore

He was absolutely, extremely ADORABLE

❤️💋🌺

[domhnallgleesonhaven]

Domhnall as Davey in Martin McDonagh’s The Lieutenant of Inishmore 🧡

📸Monique Carboni

[poetickrogan]

Saw a great play last night that contained multiple instances of cat murder, torture and 90's dance sequences in the context of Irish liberation

[musical-chick-13]

No, but the way this movie contrasts with The Lieutenant of Inishmore, DOWN TO HAVING THE SAME NAME OF THE PROTAGONISTS, ONLY DISTINGUISHED BY AN ACCENT ON ONE OF THE “A”s.

But Inishmore’s lead is established as volatile and dangerous from the beginning, whereas Banshees’ lead works his way up there. Both of these works involve a violent conflict over the death of an animal, but Inishmore ends with the animal in question having been alive the whole time, the perceived death kicking off the story, but Banshees’ animal death leads to the film’s climax.

Inishmore‘s violence over a beloved pet comes as a result of the protagonist jumping immediately to murder as an egregious overreaction, allowing it to remain a comedy through exaggeration, whereas the (attempted) murder in Banshees comes as a result of increasing desperation, at the end of a long, hard journey where not much is funny anymore. Inishmore’s cat is the only thing Padraic cares about at all, whereas Banshees’ donkey Jenny is the very last friend Pádraic had left. In Inishmore, the pet was an inciting incident, used as an excuse for the lead to go on a spree, but in Banshees, it’s the last straw in a list of things the lead believes this feud with his former friend has taken from him: the friend in question breaking off the friendship on account of his “inherent dullness” in the first place, the feud’s escalation being the thing that finally pushes his sister to leave the island, and Pádraic’s feud-inspired petty actions regarding a potential friendship rival pushing Dominic away as well. He has been slowly driven into deeper and deeper feelings of isolation (some of them his own fault, some of them not), and Jenny’s death is the last push into those feelings that sends him into the pit completely.

Padraic of Inishmore is willing to kill other animals, but Pádraic of Banshees is unwilling to harm Colm’s dog, since the dog did nothing wrong and never hurt him. Padraic (Inishmore) is incapable of forming true connections with other people, but Pádraic’s (Banshees) tragedy is tied up in his inability to deal with the loss of those genuine connections that he does make.

MANY THOUGHTS. HEAD FULL.

[stelly38]

Cuuuuuute!

❤️❤️❤️ Twitter @beckyreed69

[stelly38]

[skippingdown16]

Where's that post about the Irish title form the blank of blank

[i-am-pinkie]

Oooh the arm porn! The Beautiful Man in Padraic form 😍♥️🥰

Thank you to The Sunday Times for this wonderful publicity shot of Aidan Turner as Padraic, the lead role in ‘The Lieutenant of Inishmore’ this summer

[gleesonarchive]

NEW/OLD • Here are some photos celebrating the opening night of 'The Lieutenant of Inishmore' featuring a young Domhnall with his co-stars!

📷 Broadway (03.05.2006)

[turneradora]

Aidan in 2018

Stage Door

The Lieutenant of Inishmore

Curls curls curls, wonderful smile and black t-shirt, he is so amazingly sexy !….

Thanks to all the owners for the pictures

[domhnallgleesonhaven]

Martin McDonagh’s The Lieutenant of Inishmore cast (2006), including a young Domhnall as Davey 🧡

Ph. by Monique Carboni

[inkfan724]

I’ve said it one and I’ll say it again, he has the most contagious smile ever.

Aidan Turner looking so happy

[anglophiletraveler]

Guns and curls backstage at Lieutenant of Inishmore!!

[oswincoleman]

Manchesters' reviews of Lemons Lemons Lemons Lemons Lemons are in!

And it is truly amazing how much better, and more accurate they are than the nonsense written by London critics.

Lemons wrapped its London run at the Harold Pinter theatre on Saturday, and started its first show at the Manchester Opera House yesterday. Here are some of the reviews I've seen:

If you read any review, read this one. It is by far and away the best, most detailed, and most accurate of all the reviews I've read. It really gives you an understanding of what the play is about, and what it is like to see it.

"With Rourke’s direction, Jenna Coleman and Aiden Turner are able to not only sit comfortable with silence themselves but make an entire audience comfortable with it too and hold that audience in the palm of their hand.  You could hear a pin drop!  Together, Coleman and Turner are utterly charming.  They depict romance and love with an adorable and natural ease, creating a warm fuzzy glow in the theatre.  However, when their relationship is tested, they create a palpable tension and static friction.  As words become limited, their use of body language and nonverbal communication is something to behold, with every intention, every nuance being crystal clear.  Coleman is fierce yet tender and moving.  Turner is charismatic and confident, yet equally vulnerable.  They have both created real, complex, pandora’s box, self-contradicting people, and it is why the audience left feeling like these are people we know.  They play comedy, romance, heartache, and conflict, all within this one act play and it is one heck of a tangy slice they serve up!"  "Lemons Lemons Lemons Lemons Lemons highlights that when you’re forced to say less, it makes you consider what you say, and how you say it.  It examines how silence, expression, eye contact and body language are powerful tools of communication.  Plus, it has Jenna Coleman and Aiden Turner!  I mean, come on!  What more could you want?!" 

🍋🍋🍋🍋

"If anyone has any sense, [Jenna Coleman and Aidan Turner] will be snapped up to combine their considerable talents in the same small screen show because they are a dream team."

🍋🍋🍋🍋

"Jenna Coleman and Aidan Turner fizz and shine in this musing romantic comedy, written by Sam Steiner." 

🍋🍋🍋🍋

"Turner and Coleman’s chemistry is undeniable as their characters struggle with what to say, how to say it and how to express themselves when unable to say anything at all."

🍋🍋🍋🍋

[lyndonriggall]

Why I’m Performing in The Pillowman in Five Days

Time moves quickly. I think it was only a moment ago that we had months ahead of us to rehearse, and yet that expanse of time has receded as swiftly as waves on the shore. Somehow, I have very quickly reached a point where I have only five days before I will be acting on-stage at Launceston’s Earl Arts Centre, for the first time in fifteen years. I am playing the part of Katurian the writer (originated by David Tennant in the 2003 premiere of the play, and most recently in 2023 by Lily Allen) in Martin McDonagh’s The Pillowman, directed by Mitchell Langley for the Launceston Players, which also stars Travis Hennessy as Tupolski, Lauchy Hansen as Ariel, Jesse Apted as Michal, and Renee Bakker, Michael Mason and Eva Cetti in various roles. As the play begins, my character is dragged in for questioning by the police. He writes powerful—but very disturbing—short stories, and it seems that someone is bringing those short stories to life.

Wouldn’t it make sense that he has something to do with it?

It all sounds pretty grim (and in many ways it is), but if you are at all familiar with McDonagh’s writing then you’ll know that he can be relied upon to strike an electrifying balance between horror and comedy. His works include The Lieutenant of Inishmore (2001), A Behanding in Spokane (2010) and Hangmen (2015) for the stage, while more recently he has made his name as the Academy Award-winning writer and director of In Bruges (2008), Seven Psychopaths (2012), Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri (2017) and The Banshees of Inisherin (2022). While The Pillowman is undoubtedly one of the darkest plays I’ve ever come across, it is also one of the funniest.

A year ago, I probably would have considered it unlikely that I would find myself here. In fact, I find it pretty unlikely even now, just days away from opening night. So why did I want to be part of The Pillowman? Aside from the obvious strengths of the team behind the project (who have taught me so much, whilst also giving me the delightful and terrifying challenge of trying to prove my right to share the same stage as them), this is a play that is very close to my heart. In 2008, in my Year 12 Theatre class, my teacher Nicole assigned me Tupolski’s famous railroad tracks monologue as my assessment piece, which I also later performed at a college academic awards night.  Ambitious creature that I was, I wouldn’t dare perform something like that without first having its context in the whole work. She lent me a copy of the play—the first time I had seen one of those strange slim paperbacks with no picture on the cover (this one was orange, as is the copy I am learning my lines from now). I went home and read it. I was laughing, I was shocked, and I was moved, all in equal measure. Oh, of course there’s something special about a work of literature that finds you on the cusp of a new phase of life, and most of my favourite books are books that I found (or that found me) that year. But aside from Shakespeare’s Hamlet (which I also discovered just before finishing school, and found myself falling into, and have since found it very hard to clamber back out of), The Pillowman swiftly became my favourite play, and Martin McDonagh my favourite living playwright. There have been a number of times on this blog where I have talked about the challenge of balance, how we prioritise and choose what to spend our precious limited time and our creative resources on. For me, the only thing worse than having the burden of auditioning for The Pillowman, being offered a part in it, and rehearsing and performing it, was the horrifying thought that someone else might get to do it in my place.

And so, here I am.

In my teaching of English, one of the most important concepts that I discuss with students is that of an “invited reading.” What I mean by this is not merely what the author (or even a character) says, but what the audience is supposed to take away as its meaning. Bad things happen in literature, but the existence of evil as a narrative element is not necessarily an endorsement of it, even if it might be tempting and easy to think so. In our inattentive world of click-bait headlines, out-of-context soundbites and addiction to outrage, it can be very easy to mistake a single puzzle piece for the whole picture, and while it happens constantly, it happens at our own peril. This is the very essence of what The Pillowman is asking us to consider: what stories are we allowed to tell? How do we shape the audience’s understanding of what we are trying to say? Can we shape the audience’s understanding of what we are trying to say? Should we be expected to? In the end, is it even fair to say that stories mean anything at all?

In a prescient update relating to the show’s themes, on World Poetry Day last month, PEN International released “War, Censorship, and Persecution,” an international case list for 2023/2024, highlighting the latest challenges for writers in global conflicts and emphasising the need to safeguard freedom of expression, especially in war-torn regions. The report documents 122 cases of writers facing harassment, arrest, violence and death worldwide. This is why the tale of Katurian still matters: because we do not yet live in a world where you can be sure that a story will not cost you your life.

A few days out from opening night, I’d be lying if I didn’t admit that I was a little scared. There is never a moment where I am not on-stage in the play. Playing Katurian as a return to performance is the theatrical equivalent of “having another go at swimming” by throwing myself into the churning waters of the Atlantic.

But that’s the point, isn’t it? I’m scared. Oh yes, I’m scared. But I have a story that needs telling.

The Launceston Players Production of The Pillowman, directed by Mitchell Langley, is on-stage at the Earl Arts Centre Wednesday 24th April at 7:30pm, Thursday 25th April at 4:30pm, Friday 26th April at 7:30pm, and Saturday 27th April at 2:00pm and 7:30pm. Tickets are still available at Theatre North.