The Lonesome West: The Story

Set in a gossip-riddled, small town in the wilds of Connemara, with a doubting priest, a love-struck, 17-year old schoolgirl and two brothers fond of expressing their "affection" for one another in a good argument, this is not really the stuff of your average, rural-Irish, kitchen-sink drama. Add a good twist of Tarantino on top and you have a Synge for the nineties...

For the most part, The Lonesome West — with a nod towards Sam Shepard's play True West (1980) — takes place in the kitchen-cum-living-room of a rundown farmhouse. Two brothers, Coleman and Valene Connor, have just returned from their father's funeral. They are joined by Father Welsh, who despairing of his parishioners is undergoing "another fecking crisis of faith." Coleman's cynical efforts to console Father Welsh are indicative of the atmosphere of anarchy and disrespect for authorities of any kind that seems to prevail in Leenane:

Coleman: Ah there be a lot worse priests than you, Father, I'm sure. The only thing with you is you're a bit too weedy and you're a terror for the drink and you have doubts about Catholicism. Apart from that you're a fine priest. Number one you don't go abusing poor gasurs, so, sure, doesn't that give you a head-start over half the priests in Ireland?

Girleen, "a pretty girl of seventeen," who trades in illicit whiskey, joins the brothers in this sport of "codding" Father Welsh. For the better part of the play, the brothers engage in what Valene calls "a great oul game, this is, apologising." The game consists of the recalling of past insults and injuries and the ritualistic assurance of forgiveness. Thus, a spiralling movement of going one better than the other brother's offence leads to an escalation of mutual recriminations and, in the end, violent behaviour. This is mainly due to the paradox that according to the "rules" of the game the confessions have to be true and based on actual misdemeanour. Coleman's bluffing game with the gun (whether loaded or not) directly implicates the audience and is only one aspect of a vicious circle that allows 'play' to develop into serious violence (and back again, as it seems).