Techniques and conventions

• Comic strip violence
• Dialogue which is vividly musical in its delivery
• Dramatic exaggeration
• Farce
• Political ballad
• Quentin Tarantino's dramatic techniques such as his violence which is noted for its casualness and macabre humour as well as copious amounts of both spattered and flowing blood in his stories
• Satire; the play ridicules terrorism
• Slapstick
• Visual theatre.

Characters

All the characters are flawed; they lack moral values and look at life in terms of adolescent absolutes, sometimes with almost a childlike dysfunctional innocence and an adult stupidity. Martin McDonagh's characters are deliberately extreme and consciously controversial (Rees, 2006, p.137).

The characters are defined almost by their sense of accomplishment that comes from killing. The violence, which can be appalling at times, is shared across all gender characterisation and the relative poverty of all characters is also significant. The characters do not really interact as family members and furthennore they die or remain at large or are not accountable for their crimes at the end of the play.

The characters cannot be judged within a naturalistic, believable, realistic context. They are partly distorted, caricature and stereotypical characters with an appealing edge to them. For example, their language/dialogue is littered with the use of feck and fecking as if this is a wonderful insult and they consistently repeat each others words and phrases which add to the humour whilst giving them a brainless quality, but there is also a musical lyrical quality to their speech patterns which draws the audience into their charms. At times they all have some type of winning way about them. Martin McDonagh says:

'There have to be moments when you glimpse something decent, something life-affirming even in the most twisted characters. That's where the real art lies' (Chambers & Jordan, 2006, p.8).

Padraic demonstrates confronting inconsistencies in his make-up; he is quite happy to murder and torture but is desperately concerned about the welfare of his cat. He initially has a hypocritical, patronising view of Mairead until she proves her ability to shoot people then he almost worships her. He is a show off, a sentimentalist, has a self-aggrandizement personality, lacks compassion and empathy and is cruel and violent. His excessive use of confused ideas carries the plot line along. He is an INLA terrorist from the Republic of lreland and obsessively loves his cat Wee Thomas.

Donny is Padraic's father. He indicates that he has beaten his own Mother. He lacks fatherly qualities, demonstrates stupidity, and relates to his teenage friend Donny in an adolescent manner. He is an INLA sympathizer from the Republic of Ireland and likes cats.

Davey, is a shoe polish sniffing and eating long-haired teenager, who is slightly chubby. He demonstrates some bravado when he stands up to Padraic a couple of times, but in the main he is rather stupid and buffoon like. He is Mairead's brother. He is an INLA sympathizer from the Republic of Ireland and likes cats.

Christy, Brandon and Joey (INLA members) are politically amoral, emotionally stunted, violent, and concerned with themselves and their limited views of life. They are all murderers and torturers. They are INLA terrorists from Northern Ireland who like and use cats for their own nefarious purposes.

James is a drug pusher who demonstrates terror in the face of gratuitous violence, but is als􀀳 savvy and quick witted when he sees an opportunity to be released from Padriac's tortures. He is a drug pusher from Northern Ireland, and his money helps finance the INLA terrorists' movement; he uses cats to further his own means.

Mairead has the innocent of a dysfunctional, psychopathic child. She has a stunted personality, and generally lacks empathy and compassion. She is an excellent shot, a torturer of cows, a murderer, and wants to become an INLA terrorist. She obsessively loves her cat Sir Roger. She ends up as the Lieutenant of lnishmore

In the main all the characters invoke the games of children into their adult lives as murder and violence is just like child's play to them all.