Play review: Ion’s “Lieutenant” ranks high in comic chaos

Before the opening-night performance of Ion Theatre’s “The Lieutenant of Inishmore” on Saturday, director Claudio Raygoza joked (at least it seemed a joke) that the dry-cleaning joint next door was offering a special rate to playgoers during the show’s run.

Good news, maybe, for those who find their clothes spritzed with some of the stage blood so liberally emitted in this production of Martin McDonagh’s midnight-black comedy.

Those blessed cleaners, though, won’t be able to do a thing for the stains on your conscience incurred by laughing so lustily at Ion’s gory, uproarious and altogether irresistible spectacle.

Ion has produced works by the caustic Irish playwright twice before, but this time the valiant Hillcrest company has out-McDonaghed itself. The show’s eight-member cast is top-rate, the physical production (co-engineered by Matt Scott in the intimate BLKBOX space) has some modest but genuine wows, and Raygoza’s direction keeps everything in tune with the work’s high-wire mix of farce and brutality.

The presentation is not necessarily recommended, though, for cat lovers, the generally squeamish or those who might have wandered in expecting some twee tale of romance and grandeur in the Irish officer ranks.

The (self-appointed) lieutenant in question here is Padraic (Kyle Sorrell), an alarmingly unhinged member of a paramilitary group called the INLA; his temper got him kicked out the Irish Republican Army, which he doesn’t consider bloodthirsty enough anyway.

When we first meet him, Padraic is busy torturing a drug dealer named James (Evan Kendig) for selling pot to Catholic schoolkids. (He sold to Protestants, too, but that doesn’t bother Padraic so much.)

Sorrell, one of several fresh faces Ion brings to local stages with this play, lends his character a matchless blend of the sick and the sentimental, and his game portrayal goes a long way toward making the show work.

Just as Padraic is preparing to unhygienically excise James’ nipple (Kendig impressively plays this entire scene hanging upside down by his feet), he gets a call from his dad, Donny (Ion ensemble member Walter Ritter, in a winningly dissipated turn). It seems Padraic’s cat, Wee Thomas, has taken ill.

In fact, as we’ve already learned, Wee Thomas is extremely deceased. Donny and local ne’er-do-well Davey (Ryan Kidd) have concocted a cover-up, terrified they’ll be blamed for the kitty’s demise. Which, of course, they are. Padraic returns to Inishmore in a rage, setting in motion a wave of violent reprisals. What keeps the ensuing events from turning into mayhem for simple shock’s sake is the poignant sense, buried deep in the repeated gallows humor, of the cheapness of life among these beaten-down characters.

Even their best intentions are poisoned by menace: Davey’s teen sister Mairead (ensemble member Morgan Trant, tough and compelling), shoots out cows’ eyes in the name of vegetarianism, for example. The other cast members (Reed Willard, Mike Jensen, Josh Adams) nicely capture that same feel of desperation and blind (not so figuratively) devotion.

It’s a crying shame, even if the tears are mostly from laughter: In this story, only the cats come off looking clean.

jim.hebert@uniontrib.com • (619) 293-2040 • Twitter @jimhebert