At first glance, McDonagh's play does not contain any sharp conflicts or branched plot lines. The action takes place in the Irish “darkness”, the town of Linen, where ordinary people live, forgotten by God. However, boredom, poverty, musty everyday life and the meaninglessness of existence so corrode the souls of the inhabitants of the town that statues of saints and a new kitchen stove begin to be valued more than human life, and it costs nothing for a son to shoot his own father with a gun just because he dared to mock his hairstyle ! “The Lonely West” contains wise humor, a sly grin, sober realism, and an abyss of painful reflections on everyday life, with its psyche-destroying frenzy and permissiveness.