ARCHIVES 2002 / L'Ouest solitaire (The Lonesome West)

The action takes place on the edge of civilisation. Because they have been forgotten in the depths of wild and shadowy Ireland, because their sensibility is measured in the litres of whisky downed each day, the Connor brothers reinvent the world in their own image, according to their own laws. Here, hatred has overtaken notions of humanity and violence is the moving force behind feelings. In the Connor brothers' kitchen, disputes are settled with fists and guns, notions of good and evil are built upon underhand strokes of blackmail. This provides for a spectacular huis clos that would be tragic if it were not for the humour that constantly blasts away the drama. There is nobody to make peace between this comic yet atomic duo. Neither the young and forward Girleen, nor the priest, Welsh, who prefers to commit suicide rather than being defrocked. Bernard Bloch, fervent admirer of Irish theatre, places the Connors somewhere in between Tom and Jerry and the pale heroes of Dostoyevsky. And the fiction that springs from the imagination of Martin McDonagh, a young British writer, takes on a dimension that is all the more exciting when Bernard Bloch likens it to other fratricidal combats, such as between Irish Catholics and Protestants, or even, he says, Israel and Palestine. The fight between Valene and Coleman Connor should be watched very closely !