La mà is one of the season’s standout offerings for Halloween. It packs in all the signature darkness and macabre fun of the period: a murky, claustrophobic aesthetic, a twisted, surreal plot, and characters who seem to have sprung straight from the mind of a deranged psyche.
Martin McDonagh is a playwright with a masterly touch when it comes to crafting tales of black, macabre, and absurd humour. And in La mà, that is exactly what we get. It all kicks off in a run-down hotel room where a distinctly disreputable man is holed up – missing a hand.
The trauma of losing his severed hand has driven him to search for it across the globe for 27 years. Now, he has pitched up in this small town where an eccentric young couple claim to have it in their possession. From that moment on, a relentless spiral of madness and mayhem unfolds within the confines of the same hotel room.
A stellar ensemble, with Albert Prat stealing the show
Pol López takes the lead in this comedy. Once again, he places himself under McDonagh’s direction to take on one of the central roles. His performance is exceptional, delivering a glare and presence that send a genuine chill down your spine. Furthermore, comic timing is his forte: he needs no words – with a mere grunt and a twitch of physical posture, he has the entire room roaring with laughter (in fact, a woman in the back row burst into a fit of uncontrollable giggles that infected everyone!). And Pol uttered not a single syllable; he simply bristled and paced the stage. Superb.
Yet Albert Prat delivers a MONUMENTAL performance. Right from his entrance, the costume choice is spot on, swiftly establishing this comic, dim-witted, yet deeply sinister figure. His extended monologue is, to my mind, the finest moment in the entire production. When he launches into his rambling riff on school massacres… even looking back on it now, I cannot help but laugh! He pulls off a complex, dual-faceted character navigating the knife-edge between comedy and dread, innocence and madness. He elicits genuine sympathy while simultaneously sparking revulsion and terror. A tour de force.
Cracking pace from start to finish
La mà opens with a gunshot echoing through the room. From then on, the action never lets up. While certain scenes linger slightly too long and a handful of gags – especially between the young couple – do not quite land, the show remains a riotous, unhinged, and macabre comedy guaranteed to keep you laughing, entertained, and thoroughly gripped by the perverse charm of its dark, semi-psychopathic ensemble.
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