A POORLY cat, unhinged drug dealers and over-zealous political activists may not seem like the usual ingredients for a comedy.

But when Martin McDonagh is the playwright you know you are in for a bloody journey with macabre humour and a message along the way.

The writer of the outstanding films In Bruges and Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, is a master craftsman when it comes to gritty and witty dialogue.

He also knows how to construct thought -provoking theatre with a difference.

This stage work grips you from the moment a torture sequence introduces two characters. One descending upside down from the ceiling.

We meet the psychotic Padraic who despite his anger has a gentle side to his nature.

He wants the suspended narcotics peddler to suffer for selling his wares to schoolchildren.

It never lets up from director Chris Sonnex's and his striking seven- strong cast.

Over the next two hours you find yourself laughing at the most grizzly of violent scenarios.

Be warned there's noisy gunfire and some visual shocking props.

Happily, there's lot of humour from the  cast who provide perfect timing individually and collectively.

The very dark script switches back and forth from surrealism to stark, earthy realism.

Padraic (Julian Moore Cook) is clearly a basket case who dotes more on his feline 'Wee Thomas' than humans.

The cat is being looked after by his hapless dad Donny and the spirited friend Davey.

While mid-mutilation of the dealer, distraught Padraic realises he needs to get back home to his moggie. But not is all it seems with his cat.

En-route he meets up with paramilitary wannabee Mairead (Katherine Devlin).

This mis-guided, deluded foot soldier is a crack shot and becomes his ill-matched love interest.

The action is fast and furious all leading to a twist in the tale which I certainly did not see coming.

People on the way out of the Everyman were in agreement, too.

This is not a predictable play. Martin McDonagh knows how to shock yet educate. The futility of violence of any kind  is at the core.

Yet in relaying the bleak and most extreme of scenarios this company create explosions of laughter.

The Lietutenant of Inishmore cannot be pigeon-holed.

If you like a play with a beginning, a middle and an end this drama is for you . . .  just be prepared -  as they are not necessarily delivered in that order.

Gory-ous Storytelling.

4 Stars.
Until October 12
0151 709 4776