Cardinal Stage Company goes ‘Lonesome West’

Aside from a botched incident with a shotgun, the luck of the Irish certainly has been on Randy White’s side while directing the Cardinal Stage Company’s production of Irish playwright Martin McDonagh’s “The Lonesome West.”

One of the first times using props during rehearsal, a gun loaded with blanks backfired and started a small fire on stage. Thankfully, no one was injured and nothing was damaged. White said the incident was the funniest memory of working on this production.

“There are a lot of special effects used in this show,” White said. “That has definitely been the most challenging part to master.”

“The Lonesome West” opens 7:30 p.m. Friday at the Ivy Tech Waldron Center’s Rose Firebay Theatre and will run through April 10. Tickets are available at the Buskirk-Chumley Theater box office or at www.cardinalstage.org.

The production centers on two Irish brothers whose father just died in a shotgun accident. The brothers are driven by greed, can’t seem to agree on anything and are at constant odds throughout the play. Only the local priest is willing to help reconcile the pair, but his drinking problem only fuels the fire and adds to the hilarity.

“This is one of the most laugh-out-loud scripts I have read in quite some time,” White said. “McDonagh has an uncanny storytelling ability that makes his characters both relatable and outrageously funny.”

White said the stage company’s choice to return to the Rose Firebay Theatre after a three-year absence was an easy one.

“Both the architecture and intimate setting of this venue made it appealing for this show,” White said. “We have managed to essentially create a total environment which allows the audience to be more deeply involved.”