That’s because it is, intermittently, tons of fun. Geoffrey Kent, who doubles as fight director and plays romantic musketeer Aramis, has choreographed many huge fights that are precise, aerodynamic and, best of all, believable.

“Geoff Kent cuts through the play’s darkness — literal and figurative both — as a virtuous and good-hearted Macduff. He handles the scene in which he learns the fate of his family by going inward and contrasting the violence with stillness. It’s a powerful moment.”

But The Lieutenant of Inishmore doesn’t glorify violence; it exposes it as the last resort of stupid, mentally powerless people. I have to admit that all the ghoulish bloodletting does give a certain horrified pleasure — witness all the guilty, chuckling gasps emitted by the audience.