Synopsis
Set on a remote island off the west coast of Ireland, The Lieutenant of Inishmore is Martin McDonagh’s pitch-black comedy about nationalism, violence, and misplaced affection. The story follows Padraic, a volatile member of a splinter Irish republican group, who returns home after hearing that his beloved cat, Wee Thomas, has been found dead. As Padraic’s fury builds, the islanders scramble to cover up the truth, leading to an escalating cycle of bloodshed and absurdity. Both shocking and hilarious, the play skewers romantic notions of heroism and rebellion, revealing the tragic farce at the heart of fanaticism.
Reviews
“With its canny craftsmanship, Grand Guignol violence, savage black humor and vividly musical language, the play certainly commands attention…”
Variety
“One could call Inishmore a black comedy, but with all the fresh blood that’s spilled before final fade-out, it might better be termed a bright-red comedy.”
TheatreMania
Playbill’s My Life in the Theatre
On 2 December 2025 Playbill released an interview with Brian on Youtube under their My Life in the Theatre playlist. Below is a transcript from the video about his time with The Lieutenant of Inishmore – you can watch it here.
“Lieutenant Inishmore, Martin McDonagh. These two things were kind of dovetailed in my life. And I was scheduled to do the production of Dirty Rotten Scoundrels when Lieutenant of Inishmore moved from the Atlantic Theatre to Broadway. So I left the… I did it on Broadway as well as the Atlantic, but I left it to go to do the Dirty Rotten Scoundrels contract. So that just bubbles up. Boring, boring business information for you.
It was my first time working with the genius that is Martin McDonagh, and the craftsmanship of his writing, and the imagination, the humour, the darkness, that is somehow all kind of mixed together to make such a unique voice. And David Wilmot, I’m looking at his face right now, and, and, uh, Kerry Condon. I mean, my God, those were two exceptional, extraordinary performances.
And, um, I was lucky to be a part of it and just be kind of like a looming presence of, you know, a bad guy with a gun who would kind of pop up every now and again, with Andrew Connolly and the Dashiell Eaves. We played the kind of the Three Stooges.
My head was decapitated in that show. So in the play – you can’t say that many times in a show – but it’s a very gory play, and at a certain point, the lights are revealed after a melee, a big gun, a big gun extravaganza. The lights come up, and my, basically my body, my cadaver is there with someone kind of sawing my head off. Um, wasn’t actually me don’t worry, it wasn’t actually me. But I still have the head. I still have the life cast head, um, of this experience. I’ve had them made before a couple times since then, but that one’s special.
A lot of blood in that show, which was peanut butter, by the way. We had to come in, we had to come in at one point having had our eyes shot out. I had to crash through a window with blood oozing from my eyes, but because they needed the blood to stay in the eye sockets, we had a mixture of red dye and peanut butter. I mean, imagine three guys backstage, their backstage prep for that entrance, just kind of a little bucket, like a really stupid bucket with peanut butter and red goo, and you’d be like, okay, all right, I’m gonna get this on, there’s a stain, you kind of lift, you had to keep your head up because if you tilted it down, it would run off. I mean, this is, this is the life in the theatre.”