A Violently Funny Skull in Connemara at The Gamm Theatre

Playwright Martin McDonagh has often been described as “one of today’s most important living Irish playwrights,” a fact that casts a certain air of solemn gravitas and formality to the proceedings. That is, unless you have seen Gamm’s latest black-as-pitch comic triumph A Skull in Connemara, an absurdist and endlessly fascinating play that lifts a toast to murder and dances a veritable jig at death’s door.

Set in the chilly and dank Irish village of Connemara, the play weaves the tale of Mick Dowd (Jim O’Brien), a hard-drinking widower who is charged with the unenviable task to exhume the town’s dead when the graveyard becomes overcrowded – usually every seven years, give or take. What he does with the remains is shrouded in mystery – a topic bandied about with relish by town busybody MaryJohnny Rafferty (Wendy Overly), who often joins him for a wee drink (or three) and some local gossip at his home.

With “skull” in the title, I’m sure I don’t have to tell you that this tale dips deep into the well of gallows humor – and doesn’t leave a gravestone unturned. Soon MaryJohnny’s slacker grandson Mairtin Hanlon (Jonathan Fisher) arrives with the news that he has been hired to help Mick unearth the cemetery’s residents in order to make room for the newly deceased. The startling news here is that the job includes disinterring Mick’s wife, who he may have killed some seven years prior according to town hearsay. Soon Mick and his unwelcome assistant set to the job at hand under the watchful eye of local officer Tom Hanlon (Steve Kidd), whose desire to become a great detective leads him to see suspicion and guilt at every turn.

Part Pinter play, part Tarantino film, A Skull in Connemara boasts a structure that rivals any police procedural, as McDonagh skillfully leads us down the path of growing suspicion to a point where the audience is simultaneously holding their sides with laughter and shielding their eyes from the impending onslaught.

The weight of the play’s success rests solidly on the shoulders of the four-person cast, and this ensemble does not disappoint. As bingo-loving chatterbox MaryJohnny, Wendy Overly is a gem, deftly balancing the larger comic moments with the darker sections. She’s a two-faced one, that MaryJohnny, as she assures Mick to that no one in town is casting aspersions about the circumstances of his wife’s death, with the not-so-very-veiled statement, “Sure, we all know the kinda’ man you are Mick Dowd.”

Jonathan Fisher is delightful as the thick-headed ne’er-do-well Mairtin, bobbing through his scenes with a shock of red curls and a fool’s grin. Steve Kidd masterfully portrays the local constable Tom – who also happens to be the Mairtin’s older brother — and the sibling rivalry between the two is uproariously funny. Kidd brought a sense of barely contained manic energy to the role – a stark contrast to the rest of the folk we have met in Connemara – and his comic timing was impeccable.

Longtime Gamm resident actor Jim O’Brien is tasked with the most demanding role and his Mick Dowd is a man whose true nature is deeply buried beneath the haze of hard drink. He continually professes that his wife’s death was the result of his being guilty of “drink driving” and nothing more. His panic at having to revisit his wife’s grave intensifies and soon we easily entertain the plausibility that perhaps he did have it in him to bludgeon his wife to death and pass it off as an accident. But of course, nothing is ever black and white and McDonagh loves a good twist to keep you on your toes.

Thankfully, director Judith Swift is back again to helm our winding journey through the darkly drawn roads of McDonagh’s Ireland. She directed the Gamm’s well-received productions of The Beauty Queen of Leenane and The Lonesome West and has a keen eye for staging the broad comedy without losing the undercurrent of menace.

Set designer Michael McGarty has constructed a monk’s cell of a cottage for widower Mick, complete with a smoky peat stove and requisite crucifix over the mantle. The appropriately gloomy lighting design by David Roy wonderfully captured the gloominess of the countryside, but still gave the audience a clear view of the characters at all times (not an easy feat, I assure you). The selections of Alex Eisenberg’s sound design perfectly reflected the unadorned nature and turbulent lives of the Irish, and Marilyn Salvatore’s costume design perfectly captured the lived-in look of Connemara’s working class residents. Special mention should be given to the production manager Jessica Hill and props artisan Rico Carroccio who must have been working for months fulfilling the script’s demands for realistic remains and those titular skulls.

A Skull in Connemara by Martin McDonagh, directed by Judith Swift is playing through March 27, 2016, at at The Gamm Theatre, 172 Exchange St. in Pawtucket. Call 401-723-4266 for tickets or buy online at gammtheatre.org.