The Cripple of Inishmaan

Director Adam clearly had a good understanding of what Martin McDonagh is portraying in his plays in terms of the social and cultural themes and it showed in his direction. Although the play is not light-hearted in any way and there are plenty of petty feuds and downright cruelty, the cast captured the sensitivity displayed by some of the characters and the lovely humour in the script making it a lighter play than some of McDonagh’s others. The cast and directing team had obviously worked together hard to develop and understand each of the complex characters and relationships, delivering both their character’s personality traits and their physicality. The overall mastery of the Irish accents was impressive to the point that I would have believed that many of the cast were native to Southern Ireland. 

The set team created a village shop in a run-down house in rural Ireland. The play is set in 1934 and the décor and set dressing fitted with the time-period and the poverty of the area. The room offered a good space for the action and clever use of set pieces and set construction allowed a number of different locations to be facilitated in the one set. Costumes were of the era and well suited to the feeling of the play.

© NODA CIO. All rights reserved.