Lonesome West, The

Me, probably straight to heaven I’ll go, even though I blew the head off poor dad. So long as I go confessing to it anyways. That’s the good thing about being Catholic. You can shoot your dad in the head and it doesn’t even matter at all.' Read more …

Bickering brothers, Coleman and Valene share a house in the wild west of Ireland. One obsesses about his religious ornaments and his precious poteen, the other thinks only of his stomach, regularly crashing funerals in his quest for a free sausage roll. Their local priest, troubled by a spate of murders in the area, tries, and fails, to convince the squabbling pair to set aside their petty differences. But when the brothers vow to be nicer to one another and wipe the slate clean by confessing to a string of vile misdemeanors towards one another, things can only degenerate into vicious and bloody carnage.

The Lonesome West is the third play in Martin McDonagh’s bleak but blackly comic Leenane trilogy.

The critical consensus

Frequently funny with bold moments that will be difficult to forget.

(*) Michael Cox, Across the Arts, 10/07/2016

Andy Arnold's new production of McDonagh's manic sit-com adds nuance to an increasingly crazed situation.

(*) Neil Cooper, Coffee-Table Notes, 10/07/2016

The enchantingly unnerving tale is instead a story to savour that will make you splutter with laughter and shudder with shock in equal measure.

(*) Harriet Brace, The Reviews Hub, 09/07/2016

A superb and satisfying Tron production.

(*) Joyce McMillan, The Scotsman, 11/07/2016

The last instalment in the Leenane triology is given a touching and funny revival with some superb performances.

(*) Mark Fisher, The Guardian, 11/07/2016

While The Lonesome West may make a certain sense within the context of the wider trilogy, as a standalone piece it feels slight and ultimately rather gratuitous.

(*) (*) Allan Radcliffe, 13/07/2016

A must-see staging of one of the finest Irish plays of recent times.

Mark Brown, Scottish Stage, 18/07/2016