Iranshahr Theater hosting Martin McDonagh’s “The Lonesome West”

March 5, 2025 - 18:14

TEHRAN-Iranshahr Theater Complex in Tehran is hosting the play “The Lonesome West,” written by British-Irish playwright Martin McDonagh.

Fuad Kharabati has directed the 75-minute play, which has Roozbeh Hesari, Mohammad Sedighi Mehr, Behafarid Ghafarian, and Soheil Mostajabian in the cast.

“The Lonesome West” is a part of McDonagh’s Connemara trilogy, which includes “The Beauty Queen of Leenane” and “A Skull in Connemara”. All three plays depict the murderous occurrences in the western Irish town of Leenane.

In the play, Valene and Coleman, two brothers living alone in their father’s house after his recent death, find it impossible to exist without the most massive and violent disputes over the most mundane and innocent of topics. Only Father Welsh, the local young priest, is prepared to try to reconcile the two before their petty squabbling spiral into vicious and bloody carnage.

Martin McDonagh, 54, is a British-Irish playwright and filmmaker. He is known for his absurdist dark humor, which often challenges the modern theater aesthetic. He has won numerous accolades, including an Academy Award, six BAFTA Awards, two Golden Globe Awards, and three Olivier Awards, in addition to nominations for five Tony Awards.

His plays, many of which have been produced on the West End and on Broadway, include “The Beauty Queen of Leenane,” “The Cripple of Inishmaan” (both 1996), “The Lieutenant of Inishmore” (2001), “The Pillowman” (2003), “A Behanding in Spokane” (2010), and “Hangmen” (2015).

McDonagh won the Academy Award for Best Live Action Short Film for “Six Shooter” and has received nominations for six other Academy Awards for his work on “In Bruges” (2007), “Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri” (2017), and “The Banshees of Inisherin” (2022).

He is the most controversial Irish dramatist working today, with his explorations of Irish national identity, which look at the darker side of provincial life. His bleak but blackly comic portrayal of modern rural Ireland courts debate with its dark farce, caricatures of violence and barbarism, and an exaggerated, poeticized dialect of Hiberno-English.

“The Lonesome West” will remain on stage until March 14 at Iranshahr Theater, located in Artists Park on North Mousavi Street, Taleqani Street.

SS/