Theatre review

A Skull in Connemara, Martin McDonagh’s macabre comedy about a gravedigger, is the least performed play from his Leenane Trilogy. But it deserves to be seen by a wide audience, on the evidence of this touring production, from Decadent Theatre Company. Despite its grisly subject matter, it is very funny. It conjures up a Gothic rural Ireland where nothing is sacred, not even the disinterring of bones from the graveyard to make room for new remains.

Garrett Keogh plays Mick, the gravedigger, who has to dig up his late wife Oona’s remains, with the help of young Mairtín. This sparks rumours in the village about Mick’s involvement in Oona’s sudden death. Mick is quick-tempered, and mischievous with his tales of what happens to corpses. But he is mostly exercised by being, as he sees it, an innocent victim of gossip. Keogh’s performance is of a defensive man who claims to be more sinned against than sinning. Doubts as to his culpability are planted in the audience’s mind thanks to the gauche Mairtín, who claims to have an inside track as to what happened to Oona.

But Mairtín, excellently played by Jarlath Tivnan, could be an unreliable narrator. After a skull-smashing session with Mick in his kitchen, the two men dump the powdered bones in the lake. Mick returns alone, with blood stains on his shirt. He thinks he has killed Mairtín, who reappears, making light of his blood-dripping exposed skull. The gormless Mairtín is irrepressible and fails to recognise he was in danger.

While much of the comedy emanates from insult-trading between Mick, Mairtín and the local Garda, Thomas, Maryjohnny, the embittered grandmother, is a source of mirth. Played by Maria McDermottroe as poitín-swilling and grudge-bearing, Maryjohnny observes everything and spits out vitriol. Most of the action takes place in the kitchen. For the graveyard scene, the walls of the cottage collapse, revealing a three-dimensional cemetery. The impressive set design is by Owen MacCarthaigh and adds to the bracing realism.