1 | [[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/mcdonagh_4352.png]] |
2 | [[caption-width-right:350:[[ClusterFBomb "Fucking"]] and [[CountryMatters "Cunt"]] are [[MetaphorIsMyMiddleName his middle names]].]] |
3 | |
4 | Martin Faranan [=McDonagh=] (born 26 March 1970) is an English-born Irish playwright, screenwriter, and director. Jumping between both theatre and film frequently, several of his notable works include: |
5 | |
6 | * '''The Leenane Trilogy''' (1996-1997), which consists of the plays ''The Beauty Queen of Leenane'', ''A Skull in Connemara'', and ''The Lonesome West''. The first and third earned him Tony Award nominations. |
7 | * '''The Aran Islands Trilogy''' (1996-2001), which consists of the plays ''The Cripple of Inishmaan'', ''Theatre/TheLieutenantOfInishmore'', and ''The Banshees of Inisheer''. The second also got him a Tony Award nomination, but the third was never produced due to [=McDonagh=]'s belief that it "[wasn't] any good".[[note]]In 2022, he directed a film titled ''Film/TheBansheesOfInisherin''; its resemblance to the unproduced play is unclear.[[/note]] |
8 | * '''Other plays''': |
9 | ** ''Theatre/ThePillowman'' (2001), wherein a writer is interrogated when the murder-based short stories he writes come true; |
10 | ** ''A Behanding in Spokane'' (2010), which follows a man trying to find the left hand he lost twenty-five years ago. ''Behanding'' starred Creator/ChristopherWalken, who was nominated for Best Actor Tony. |
11 | ** ''Theatre/{{Hangmen}}'': Set in TheSixties. |
12 | * '''Short films''': ''Film/SixShooter'' (2004), a short film that involves a train passenger, coping with his wife's recent death, speaking with a very eccentric and possibly psychotic man. The film won [=McDonagh=] an [[MediaNotes/AcademyAwardForBestLiveActionShortFilm Oscar for Best Short Film]]. |
13 | * '''Feature films''': ''Film/InBruges'' (2008), a BlackComedy which follows two Irish hitmen hiding in Belgium following a hit that went wrong; ''Film/SevenPsychopaths'' (2012), which follows [[AuthorAvatar screenwriter Marty]] trying to write a script, only to draw unwanted inspiration when dragged into a dog-kidnapping; ''Film/ThreeBillboardsOutsideEbbingMissouri'' (2017), which follows a mother's crusade against her town's police force over her daughter's unsolved murder; and ''Film/TheBansheesOfInisherin'' (2022), which follows two lifelong best friends who abruptly break up their friendship. ''Bruges'' won [=McDonagh=] the Best Original Screenplay BAFTA, ''Psychopaths'' starred an EnsembleCast and has become somewhat of a CultClassic, ''Missouri'' won two Oscars ([[MediaNotes/AcademyAwardForBestActressInALeadingRole Best Actress]] for Creator/FrancesMcDormand, [[MediaNotes/AcademyAwardForBestActorInASupportingRole Best Supporting Actor]] for Creator/SamRockwell), and ''Banshees'' earned Creator/ColinFarrell, Creator/BrendanGleeson, Creator/KerryCondon and Creator/BarryKeoghan their first acting Oscar nominations. Farrell additionally won the Best Comedy/Musical Actor UsefulNotes/GoldenGlobeAward for his roles in ''Bruges'' and ''Banshees''. |
14 | |
15 | [=McDonagh's=] works are easily recognized by being (generally) [[BloodyHilarious violent]] [[BlackComedy black comedies]] that focus on [[DysfunctionalFamily dysfunctional families]], [[HitmanWithAHeart hired killers]], and/or a uniquely twisted form of SmallTownBoredom. Expect ''[[ClusterFBomb incredibly]]'' [[CountryMatters colourful]] [[BuffySpeak language]], and settings in (or near) County Galway (and surrounding islands) during UsefulNotes/TheTroubles, at least in his theatre work. |
16 | |
17 | Further, his brother, John Michael [=McDonagh=], made his directorial debut with ''Film/TheGuard'' (which Martin produced) in 2011, and also released ''Film/{{Calvary}}'' in 2014. Like ''Six Shooter'' and ''Film/InBruges'', they both star Creator/BrendanGleeson. |
18 | |
19 | ---- |
20 | !!Martin [=McDonagh's=] work contains examples of: |
21 | |
22 | * AssociatedComposer: Carter Burwell has scored every one of his films. |
23 | * BlackComedy |
24 | * BloodyHilarious |
25 | * BrickJoke: the apparent feud between the unseen owners of a cat and a goose; Helen being hired to dispose of said animals; the owners not seeming to care about the feud anymore (because it was a cover to their SecretRelationship). |
26 | * BuryYourDisabled: deconstructed in ''Cripple'' |
27 | * ChekhovsGun: Very prominent examples exist, so much so they alone act as a RewatchBonus. For example, the page for ''Film/InBruges'' notes how almost all the minor conversation act as {{foreshadowing}} for something to come. |
28 | * ClusterFBomb: Written works tend to have gratuitous amounts of bad language, so much so that characters from ''In Bruges'' [[LampshadeHanging lampshade]] Harry punctuating his sentences with "fucking." |
29 | * CoveredInGunge: Bartley in ''Cripple'' gets at least three eggs cracked over his head every performance |
30 | * CreatorBreakdown: InUniverse in ''The Pillowman'' |
31 | * CreatorProvincialism: Most of his work is either set in Ireland or at least features Irish protagonists. |
32 | * CreatorThumbprint: MametSpeak, BlackComedy that usually turns tragic, existential ennui, lots of profanity, dysfunctional families, and Irish people. |
33 | * DisabledCharacterDisabledActor: This trope is [[DiscussedTrope discussed]] InUniverse in ''Cripple''; the concept is PlayedWith in several ways, although the actor playing Billy is almost always able-bodied. |
34 | * TheDocumentary: "Man of Aran," a real 1934 ([[VeryLooselyBasedOnATrueStory docudrama]]) film. |
35 | * EconomyCast: Whilst expected of his theatre pieces, ''In Bruges'' and ''Seven Psychopaths'' follow suit as, save for a handful of speaking extras, the plot tends to focus entirely on the lives of six or seven main characters. |
36 | * EvilMatriarch: Mag is the first type in ''Beauty Queen''. |
37 | * FakingTheDead: [=McDonagh=] LOVES this and its various subtropes. In the Aran Islands plays, it's a specific {{Homage}} to ''Theatre/ThePlayboyOfTheWesternWorld''. |
38 | * {{Gorn}}: Between the blood, gore, and kitty brain matter in ''[[Theatre/TheLieutenantOfInishmore Lieutenant]]''; hot oil in ''Beauty Queen''; flying bone chips in ''A Skull in Connemara''; and [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking raw eggs]] in ''Cripple'', it seems like [=McDonagh=] is off his game if he hasn't created a hideous mess for stage management to clean up every night. |
39 | * GossipyHens: rare male example in Johnnypateenmike, who barters tidbits of information for goods from local merchants. |
40 | * [[HonoraryUncle Honorary Aunts]]: Kate and Eileen to Billy. |
41 | * IncurableCoughOfDeath: DoubleSubversion in ''Cripple.'' |
42 | * KnowledgeBroker: Johnnypateenmike |
43 | * LeaningOnTheFourthWall: "Better to cast a normal fella who can act crippled, than a crippled fella who can't act at all." |
44 | * MametSpeak: Dialogue can be realistically clumsy, irregularly paced, and very frequently dips into vulgar. |
45 | -->'''Ken''': You don't even know we're here hiding out.\ |
46 | '''Ray''': What are you talking about?\ |
47 | '''Ken''': You don't even know we're not here on a job.\ |
48 | '''Ray''': What, on a job?\ |
49 | '''Ken''': Yeah.\ |
50 | '''Ray''': Here? Film/{{In Bruges}}?\ |
51 | '''Ken''': Yeah.\ |
52 | '''Ray''': Here? In Bruges? On a job?\ |
53 | '''Ken''': Yeah.\ |
54 | '''Ray''': Why? What did he actually say?\ |
55 | '''Ken''': He didn't actually say anything.\ |
56 | '''Ray''': Then why do you think it might be?\ |
57 | '''Ken''': I don't think anything. But it's a bit fucking over-elaborate, isn't it? ''"Go take him to hide out." "Go take him to hide out where?" "Go take him to hide out in fucking Bruges."'' You can hide out in Croydon.\ |
58 | '''Ray''': Hmm. Or Coventry. Hmm. It is a bit over-elaborate. Hmm. |
59 | * MaybeEverAfter: Billy and Slippy Helen in ''Cripple.'' FridgeBrilliance kicks in when you realize siblings Mairead and Davy in ''[[Theatre/TheLieutenantOfInishmore Lieutenant]]'' share a last name with Billy Claven (established to have no living relatives) and many personality traits with Helen and her brother Bartley. [[DownerEnding That is if Billy lives much longer after the play]]. |
60 | * MommyIssues: Maureen in ''Beauty Queen''-- and ''how!'' |
61 | * {{Oireland}} / NWordPrivileges: Early in his career, [=McDonagh=] received criticism for his depiction of the Irish, being born and raised in England himself. |
62 | * OnceDoneNeverForgotten: Auntie Katie, who talks to ''stones.'' |
63 | * OnlySaneMan: He's an alcoholic mess, but Father Welsh in The Leenane Trilogy is pretty much the only one in the village to [[spoiler: never kill anyone]]. |
64 | * ThePlace: All the plays in the Leenane and Aran Islands Trilogies feature a place name or direction in their titles. ''A Behanding in Spokane'', ''Film/InBruges'' and ''Film/TheBansheesOfInisherin'' also qualify. |
65 | * PrecisionFStrike: From, hilariously, a little girl in ''The Pillowman.'' |
66 | -->"I don't want to be ''like'' Jesus. ''I fucking '''am''' Jesus''!" |
67 | * ProductionPosse: Creator/ZeljkoIvanek has appeared in his first three films, while Creator/ColinFarrell starred in ''Film/InBruges'', ''Film/SevenPsychopaths'' and ''Film/TheBansheesOfInisherin'' (reuniting with Creator/BrendanGleeson from ''Bruges'' for the latter), and Creator/WoodyHarrelson, Creator/SamRockwell, and Creator/AbbieCornish rejoined [=McDonagh=] from ''Psychopaths'' for ''Film/ThreeBillboardsOutsideEbbingMissouri''. Additionally, Carter Burwell has scored all his feature films and Ben Davis has been his cinematographer since ''Psychopaths''. |
68 | * ProsceniumReveal: [[spoiler: Cripple Billy]]'s death scene early in Act 2 is revealed to have been his Hollywood screen test. |
69 | * RepetitiveName: Katurian K Katurian in ''The Pillowman''. [[note]]In case you were wondering, the K stands for Katurian.[[/note]] |
70 | * RuleOfFunny: "Let's play England and Ireland!" [[CoveredInGunge *egg to the head*]] |
71 | * RunningGag: In ''Cripple'': "Ireland can't be so bad if [[[MadLibsCatchPhrase American, French, colored fellows]], [[ItMakesSenseInContext sharks]]] want to move here!" |
72 | * SeinfeldianConversation |
73 | * SlidingScaleOfIdealismVsCynicism: Pretty Damn Cynical |
74 | * StrangeSyntaxSpeaker: Most everyone, especially older characters. It's essentially what you would get if you crossed Hiberno-English with MametSpeak. The style was so distinctive it was parodied "How Are Things In Irish Drama?", the ''Theatre/ForbiddenBroadway'' take on ''Beauty Queen''. |
75 | * ThreateningShark: A shark is hunted in "Man of Aran" and is apparently how Johnnypateenmike's father died. The widow turns the other cheek. To a shark! |
76 | * TheXOfY: Several titles |
77 |
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