Martin McDonagh
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Martin McDonagh (born 26 March 1970) is a contemporary Irish playwright. He was born in Camberwell, London, to Irish parents. His mother (originally from Killeenduff, Easky, County Sligo) and his father (originally from Lettermullen, Connemara, County Galway) later moved back to Galway, leaving Martin and his brother (screenwriter John Michael McDonagh) in London, where Martin began collecting the dole at age 16.
During visits to Galway in the summers, McDonagh became acquainted with the curious dialect of English spoken in western Ireland, which he would later put to work in his plays. His ironic combination of coarse country language, primal symbology and black humour represents a peculiar fusion of the work of John Millington Synge with the modern drama of Harold Pinter, David Mamet and British television comedy.
He has been awarded London Critics' Circle Theatre Awards for Most Promising Playwright in 1996.
His dramatic corpus to date incorporates two dark comedic trilogies, The Galway Trilogy (The Beauty Queen of Leenane, A Skull in the Connemara, The Lonesome West) and the Aran Islands trilogy (The Cripple of Inishmaan, The Lieutenant of Inishmore, The Banshees of Inisheer), and the dark fantasy, The Pillowman, as well as two prize-winning radio plays, including 'The Tale of the Wolf and the Woodcutter'[1].
In March 2006 he won an Academy Award for Best Live Action Short Film for Six Shooter a film he wrote and directed.
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[edit] The Leenane Trilogy
[edit] The Beauty Queen of Leenane (1996)
The story of the disfunctional relationship between a spinster and her domineering mother, during the course of which the former faces her last chance at love, and the latter faces a rather grim end. Nominated for Tony Award for Best Play in 1998.
[edit] A Skull in Connemara (1997)
A Connemara man has the job of smashing the skeletons in old graves, and his newest customer is the wife he killed years before, which may or may not have been accidental.
[edit] The Lonesome West (1997)
An Erinization of Sam Shepard's True West, in which two brothers bicker in the aftermath of the supposedly accidental fatal shooting of their father. Nominated for Tony Award for Best Play in 1999.
[edit] The Aran Islands Trilogy
[edit] The Cripple of Inishmaan (1996)
A crippled teenager schemes to get a part in Man of Aran. Dark comedy ensues.
[edit] The Lieutenant of Inishmore (2001)
The insane leader of an IRA splinter group has just found out his best friend has been killed. The best friend is a cat... hilarity and/or violence ensues.
[edit] The Banshees of Inisheer
The grand finale of the Aran Islands trilogy. (unproduced and unpublished)
[edit] Other Plays
[edit] The Pillowman (2003)
McDonagh has also written The Pillowman (2003), in which a horror writer is interrogated after several local children are murdered (awarded Laurence Olivier Award for Best new play in 2004), and The Mamturk Rifleman.
[edit] Other works
In 2006, Martin McDonagh won an Oscar for his short film Six Shooter.
Six Shooter, which is the playwright's first move into film, boasts an impressive list of Irish talent including Brendan Gleeson, Ruaidhri Conroy, David Wilmot and Aisling O'Sullivan.
The black comedy follows Gleeson as he makes a sad train journey home, just hours after his wife's death, but on the trip he encounters a strange and possibly psychotic young man. The short film was shot on location in Wicklow, Waterford and Rosslare.
In Bruges
After winning his Oscar for Six Shooter, McDonagh entered into an agreement with Focus Features to direct a feature-length film from his screenplay "In Bruges," about two hit men who hide out in Bruges after accidentally killing a child. Colin Farrell and Brendan Gleeson are set to star in the feature.
[edit] References
| Works by Martin McDonagh | |
|---|---|
| The Leenane Trilogy: The Beauty Queen of Leenane | A Skull in Connemara | The Lonesome West | |
| The Aran Islands Trilogy: The Cripple of Inishmaan | The Lieutenant of Inishmore | The Banshees of Inisheer | |
| Other Plays: The Pillowman | |
| Films: Six Shooter | |
