A Skull in Connemara, the second installment of McDonagh's Leenane Trilogy is 'pungent with dirty jokes and imminent savagery' (Entertainment Weekly).

Did Mick Dowd's wife die when he was drunk at the wheel or as a result of a deadly blow by Mick? Since Mick is a gravedigger, and must exhume the graveyard every seven years to make way for new corpses, he's now faced with digging up his dead wife.

The blood-splattered script is part thriller-whodunit and part farce, sending fragments of skulls flying across the stage.


Catriona Craig is an Associate Director with Love&Madness, directing Hard Times, Wuthering Heights, Henry V, and adapting Frankenstein.

She studied Drama at Royal Holloway, University of London, is a graduate of both the Royal National Theatre Studio and the Royal Court New Directors Scheme. Formerly an Associate Director of The Steam Industry, she now divides her time between TV and theatre. She specialises in working with emerging writers and has run workshops for the BBC and the Soho Theatre. She is on the literary panel of the Royal National Theatre and has worked as a script editor for BBC Comedy and RTE (Dublin).

Recent productions include: Directed by Jim Leonard a pilot for BBC2; It's All About Me’written by and starring Miranda Hart (Pleasance Edinburgh, Soho Studio London and national tour); a short film, Tonight's the Night (BBC T&D).


REVIEWS

" This lively pseudo-gothic farce, rich with Gallic idiom and flamboyance, might not offer the musing-on-mortality one suspects from graveyard set-ups, but its wily and brisk comedy serves as ample compensation for any absent gravitas . ... As the smart-arse incumbent of an oversubscribed local cemetery, Mick has to annually exhume old punters to make space for new ones. He celebrates these dig-ups by drunkenly smashing up the bones until they become snortable. This he does with the help of a conspiratorial dumb-nut apprentice, Jack Bence's Mairtin. ... Jobsworth copper Thomas Hanlon is an asthmatic and relentless idiot with the detective skills of cooked hamster (an entity which, incidentally, had Mairtin wrongfully expelled from school). A frequent symptom of idiocy being ambition, Hanlon seeks promotion so badly that he is willing to break a bone (or skull) to get it. By cracking the cranium of Mick's late wife Oona, Hanlon hopes to nick Mick for murder and rise in the ranks as a result. ... Native Irishman Dan Mullane, as Mick, captures both the pathos and acerbic wit of a man pushed to the brink by a chorus of gossips and crooks. Lucia McAnespie has fun as Maryjohnny Rafferty, a bingo-whore with legs that don't bend and a thirst that won't quench. Bence and Iarla McGowan (Hanlon) offer decent support and Catriona Craig's direction leaves no comedic stone unturned: timings, inflections and mannerisms are all finely executed. ... one of best light-hearted, heavy-tongued comedies I've seen on the fringe this year. " - British Theatre Guide

" Mullane's Mick has a brooding, devil-driven quality and a morbid wit, and Jack Bence is hilarious as the gangling eejit Mairtin. There's nastily fine work, too, from Lucia McAnespie as Mairtin's vicious, freeloading granny, whose heroes are Jesus and Eamonn Andrews. Despite her air of Roman Catholic sanctimony, McAnespie brims with viciousness, greeting every arising conflict with lip-licking glee. " - The Times

" Dan Mullane is excellent as the dark, brooding Mick, dividing opinions and making it impossible to tell whether he is a wife butcherer or merely the victim of harmful gossip. His troubled face is deeply intriguing as it appears to hide many secrets and can transform from a light smile into a tormented grimace within a matter of seconds. Playing a side-kick of sorts is Jack Bence as Mairtin. ... Bence manages to aptly convey the dark humour of McDonagh's text playing with both the comic and morbid sections - massaging skulls as if they were breasts is not for the fainthearted. ... Mick and Mairtin are joined by local busybody Maryjohnny, Lucia McAnespie, whose obsession with bingo is seen right down to the marks of highlighter pen decorating her hands. Once again McAnespie takes on her role with true eloquence, as she plays the doddery old woman without a hint of a caricature. Likewise, Iarla McGowan's useless village policeman Thomas is both hilarious and menacing as he tries to prove Mick's guilt, but ends up appearing more like PC Plum than Columbo. With perfect comic timing, McGowan is sublime right down to his asthma pump. ... With a detailed, clear and concise direction from Catriona Craig ... A Skull in Connemara is a gripping, entertaining and deeply macabre production. " - Science Is A Lie

" This slice of Irish gothic isn't for the faint-hearted: with all the fecks and blood and smashing of skulls, it's a bit of an assault on the senses. But if you're already familiar with Martin McDonagh's oeuvre – a heady cocktail shaken together from equal parts of Synge and Tarantino – you won't be surprised to hear that. ... ‘A Skull in Connemara' is a play with a ‘Hamlet' complex; at its heart stands Dan Mullane's brooding Mick Dowd, a poteen-soaked gravedigger who may or may not have murdered his wife. He may be more likely to take a mallet to a skull than to soliloquise over one, but that doesn't mean he's without emotional depth. ... Mullane is splendid " - TimeOut

" McDonagh disposes the elements of his play with a beautiful intricacy and his banter is bang up to date. ‘There's nothing wrong with lesbians,' says Mick. ‘They're not doing anybody any harm. And they're great tennis players.' Dan Mullane is brimful of charisma as the delusional drink-fuddled widower, and Iarla McGowan, as his friend-turned-avenger, gets just the right mix of creepiness and petty-minded menace. Director Catriona Craig has marshalled a scruffily energetic production and though it may not win prizes — certainly not from Discover Ireland — it's a richly rewarding night out. " - The Spectator