From the pen of Martin McDonagh, the writer who gave us the darkly comical and at times violently unsettling In Bruges, and the Oscar winning short Six Shooter, comes The Cripple of Inishmaan, another slice of coal-black humour and macabre cruelty delivered by a cast of eccentric island characters. The production sees McDonagh team up once more with frequent collaborators, the acclaimed Galway theatre company Druid, a relationship that stretches back to 1996 when they premièred McDonagh's debut work The Beauty Queen of Leenane. It's a working relationship that has proved prosperous for both parties in the years that followed.

The second play in McDonagh's Aran Island's trilogy, The Cripple of Inishmaan is centred around the island of the title and its inhabitants, such as Cripple Billy's adoptive aunt who has been known to talk to stones and gossip monger Johnnypateenmike, who for years has been trying to get his elderly mother to drink herself to death. It's 1934 and news on Inishmaan is thin on the ground. Then word arrives that they're making a Hollywood film on neighbouring Inishmore and Cripple Billy for once is paying attention. Eager to escape the gossip and boredom he goes in search of a part in the documentary – and succeeds.

The tour, which brings McDonagh back together with Tony Award-winning director Garry Hynes, also heralds two significant strategic developments for Druid in 2008; the company's first co-production with an American theatre, Atlantic in New York, and in an audience development initiative, the beginning of a partnership with Oxford Playhouse which will see Druid playing UK venues outside London over the next three years. But before that the show comes to Cork where it is currently undertaking a run at the Opera House until Saturday, October 4. Highly recommended.

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