In a Godforsaken corner of an Irish village, two brothers are constantly at each other’s throats, hating one another and fighting for their lives over even the most trivial things. Although neither of them can remember what started their feud, the moment they open their eyes each morning, they get down to arguing as if it were their job.
The Lonesome West (1997), a play by Irish-born British playwright and screenwriter Martin McDonagh, frequently staged in Latvia, is the final work in the playwright’s Leenane Trilogy.
“What drew me to it was the theme of how the closest members of a family – brothers – sustain themselves on hatred for one another. The writing is so brilliant because McDonagh knows how to push it to the absolute extreme. Just when it seems there is no way out, some bizarrely insane solution suddenly appears. McDonagh’s writing is characterised by very direct language – it is dark, but at the same time extremely witty, funny, and, in fact, says quite a lot about the way we often treat one another here in Latvia.
You don’t have to look far for examples. When you’re driving and, God forbid, I happen to get slightly in another driver’s way, their outburst of hatred will be no less intense than in this play – they may even find themselves thinking, ‘Why was I ever born?!’” the director says, drawing a parallel.
Translation of the play: Normunds Naumanis
