By Mark Vaughan-Jackson

When it came time for Beothuck Street Players to select a production for this year s Provincial Drama Festival, members chose to revisit an old friend. The company will perform The Lonesome West by Irish playwright Martin McDonagh at the LSPU Hall March 28 - April 1.

The play is part of a trilogy by McDonagh set in the Irish village of Leenane. Beothuck Street performed the first in the trilogy Beauty Queen of Leenane, last year.

"They re different characters, but the same town. Characters and events in one play are referred to in the other ones," director Kevin Lewis explained. "But it s noi a continuation or anything." Lewis said McDonagh s works provide something for company members to sink their teeth into.

"It has the full gamut as a piece of theatre," Lewis said of the play. ‘The plays are basically character driven, and I like the way (McDonagh) takes situations and forces you to look at them in different ways."

The story focuses on two middle-aged brothers — Valene and Coleman Connor, played by Lewis and Stephen Holmes, respectively.

‘They re living together and their father has just died," Lewis said. "Valene is in total control of all the funds and everything, and as a result he has a certain power over Coleman. Even though they re two middle-aged brothers, they fight over very trivial things." The trivial versus the significant is a familiar theme in McDonagh s plays. "The trivial becomes very important and the important becomes very trivial," Lewis observed.
"Valene collects these religious figurines of the saints and the Virgin Mary, and he has a severe collection over the fireplace. Material possessions in this play become very important.

‘"When news hits that someone has just died — which should be the big story — within seconds we ve gone back to the trivial again."

Also living in Leenane is Father Welsh, the troubled parish priest, played by Michael Coady.

"He s basically a major failure as a priest. As he says himself, and this is one of the most quoted lines in the play, ‘God has no jurisdiction in this town, " Lewis said. "His way of surviving is through booze. ... The reason he hangs out with these two brothers is they always have a bottle of poteen going." Rounding out the cast of characters is Girleen, played by Jessica Natiuk, the daughter of the local poteen brewer and thus a familiar face in the Connor household.

"She visits the boys a fair bit because they are regular customers of her father s," Lewis said. "She's also in love with the priest but it s a one-way street. He's preoccupied with his own failure.

Father Welsh is also consumed with trying to solve the mystery surrounding recent deaths in the town, and at the same time keeping the Connor brothers apart. "He tries to keep these two brothers from killing each other, basically, and it gets more and more frustrating for him," Lewis said. "There s been a couple of murders in. the town and nobody will confess to him who did it. He knows he s rubbing shoulders with these people and this just adds to his self-image as a failure, because no one will confess to him." Lewis said while play includes some particularly intense moments, it also has plenty of comedy.

"The situations to the characters are very serious, but a lot of the situations to the -audience are totally ridiculous," he said.

Lewis said McDonagh also uses the play to explore themes such as the power of the church and humankind's violent nature. "On the bigger picture, the metaphor for universal violence is there. The priest has a line in there, ‘How can we ever hope for peace in the world if you can t get along with your own brother? " Lewis said.

"The figurines, in a way, become a symbol of the church. Without giving too much away, let me say the figurines get slightly damaged in the play." What Lewis likes most about McDonagh s work is his ability to explore bigger issues almost as an afterthought. "McDonagh himself said he just wrote a story about characters. But you can t help seeing the play without knowing exactly what he s saying about the church and exactly what he s saying about violence," he said.

"I mean, he has violence in this play reduced to two guys fighting over crisps (potato chips)," Lewis said. "It shows that some of the conflicts that we get into, universally, can be looked at under a microscope and sometimes seen to be a little silly."

Show time for The Lonesome West is 7:30 p.m. with a 3 p.m. matinee on April 1. Tickets are $12.50 and $10.50.