There's this porcelain dog that has sat on a window pelmet in my mother's lounge room for at least four decades. It's hideous. My siblings and I all hate it. I joke that one day we will all be fighting over who should get that dog. As the saying goes "where there's a will, there's a relative". I'm confident my family is immune to this type of mean, vindictive, angry, ugly dynamic. But the people we love are often the people we are worst to. And that's the basis of The Lonesome West, a play by Martin McDonagh. It's insightful, dark and deeply troubling but at the same time irreverent and very, very funny. Like life, it's full of contradictions. It is, like the setting, very Irish. And being Irish there is much boozing, religion and a lot of lyrical language. It's hardly a positive reflection on family dynamics and you won't leave the theatre doing cartwheels of joy up Brunswick Street but it will make you think and stay with you for a long time.
The Lonesome West by Troop Productions is on at the Judith Wright Centre until Saturday November 18. Listen to our interview with the creatives or hear our review .
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