Expect comedy, seriousness and the unexpected in the Corpus PlayroomThe Lieutenant of Inishmore Company

Recently, Irish plays seem to be experiencing a bit of a renaissance in the Cambridge theatre scene. John Millington Synge’s The Playboy of the Western World and another of Martin McDonagh’s plays, The Cripple of Inishmaan, were both well-received by audiences and student critics (ahem) alike. Hopefully a sign of a renewed, and indeed expanded, interest in non-English theatre, it is exciting to see a new production of The Lieutenant of Inishmore, directed by Megan Dunne, opening at the Corpus Playroom this week.

I arrive at the Corpus Playroom at an obscenely early hour – whatever else you might think of thesps, you can’t accuse them of being lazy – where Henry Phillips (James) is in the process of removing his shirt. “Special treatment for Varsity”, quips a member of the production team, obviously the next Stephen Fry. I should say at the outset that the play includes rather a lot of references to cutting off people’s nipples, and if that doesn’t get you through the door, I really don’t know what will. Benedict Mulcare (Padraic) has a superb physical presence on the stage, sporting a remarkably convincing Irish accent and maniacal disposition. All in all, it’s a very talky rehearsal: Dunne runs the cast relentlessly through different iterations of each scene, adjusting an emphasis on a word, revising intonation, rebalancing rhythms of speech. Such attention to detail leaves me with high hopes for the production itself.

I add to the talkiness by grilling Dunne, Mulcare and Helen Jennings (Mairead) about the play and their thoughts on it. All three are on top form and look pleased when I tell them that everyone is “immensely quotable” today.  Dunne explains why she wanted to put on an Irish play: “I felt I could lend so much more of myself to it”, she said. It’s not just an attempt to capture a specific historical period, but also the “personality of a nation”. It is this ambitious vision which I suspect drives the whole cast’s genuine commitment to capturing some essence of Irish-ness and in particular, the distinctive Irish sense of humour. The Lieutenant of Inishmore is, after all, a black comedy, though at times it can feel more coalmine than light entertainment piece. Jennings, in describing the Irish sense of humour clarifies helpfully that “we both absolutely mean it and we absolutely don’t”.

However, the play is not just funny. It also deals with serious themes: the fetishisation of paramilitarism, the indoctrination of young people, rampant nationalism (Jennings is admirably articulate at 9am in the morning) – the list goes on, and is probably starting to feel uncomfortably familiar. Mulcare notes that “a lot of the darkness lies in [the play’s] authenticity” – although The Lieutenant of Inishmore is both literally and thematically very much of a particular place and time, many of its themes remain troublingly resonant today. Director Dunne is certainly sensitive to the darkness within the play – the characters can’t be too nice, she explains: “we need them to be weird and ugly”.

I wrap up our discussion and let the cast get back to their rehearsal. “Come see the play”, adds Mulcare (subtlety onstage, yes – offstage, not so much). The costume designer arrives and Dunne is summoned away to deal with more important matters. The Lieutenant of Inishmore promises to be an excellent production – the cast and crew have clearly given careful thought to each aspect of the show. The play itself is a bit of a wild ride – though I can’t say too much more or I’ll let the cat out of the bag.

 The Lieutenant of Inishmore is on at the Corpus Playroom 20-24 February