Martin McDonagh is an English-born Irish playwright and screenwriter best known for The Leenane Trilogy,
The Lieutenant of Inishmore and the Oscar-nominated film
In Bruges.
The Leenane Trilogy consists of
The Beauty Queen of Leenane,
A Skull in Connemara, and
The Lonesome West. The Aran Islands Trilogy consists of
The Cripple of Inishmaan,
The Lieutenant of Inishmore, and the unproduced
The Banshees of Inisheer. Other plays include
The Pillowman and
A Behanding in Spokane. Before
In Bruges, McDonagh also wrote and directed the short film
Six Shooter, for which he received an Oscar for Best Short Film. His current project is the film
Seven Psychopaths, which will be released in fall 2012.
His works are generally
violent black comedies that focus on
dysfunctional families,
hired killers, and/or a uniquely twisted form of
Small Town Boredom in County Galway (and surrounding islands) during
The Troubles.
Martin McDonagh's work contains examples of:
- Black Comedy
- Bloody Hilarious
- Brick Joke: 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.
- Bury Your Disabled: deconstructed in Cripple
- Cluster F-Bomb
- Covered in Gunge: Bartley in Cripple gets at least three eggs cracked over his head every performance
- Creator Breakdown: in The Pillowman
- Disabled Character, Disabled Actor: played with and discussed in Cripple, although the actor playing Billy is almost always able-bodied.
- The Documentary: "Man of Aran," a real 1934 (docudrama) film.
- Everything's Even Worse with Sharks: 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!
- Evil Matriarch: Mag is the first type in Beauty Queen.
- Faking the Dead: McDonagh LOVES this and its various subtropes. In the Aran Islands plays, it's a specific Homage to The Playboy of the Western World.
- Gorn: Between the blood, gore, and kitty brain matter in Lieutenant; hot oil in Beauty Queen; flying bone chips in A Skull in Connemara; and 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.
- Gossipy Hens: rare male example in Johnnypateenmike, who is barters tidbits of information for goods from local merchants.
- Honorary Aunts: Kate and Eileen to Billy.
- Incurable Cough of Death: Double Subversion in Cripple.
- Knowledge Broker: Johnnypateenmike
- Leaning on the Fourth Wall: "Better to cast a normal fella who can act crippled, than a crippled fella who can't act at all."
- Maybe Ever After: Billy and Slippy Helen in Cripple. Fridge Brilliance kicks in when you realize siblings Mairead and Davy in Lieutenant share a last name with Billy Claven (established to have no living relatives) and many personality traits with Helen and her brother Bartley. That is, if Billy lives much longer after the play.
- Mommy Issues: Maureen in Beauty Queen— and how!
- Never Live It Down: In-Universe: Auntie Katie, who talks to stones.
- Oireland / N-Word Privileges: YMMV; McDonagh has received criticism for his depiction of the Irish, being born and raised in England himself.
- Only Sane Man: He's an alcoholic mess, but Father Welsh in The Leenane Trilogy is pretty much the only one in the village to never kill anyone.
- The Place: All the plays in the Leenane and Aran Islands Trilogies feature a place-name or direction in their titles. A Behanding in Spokane and In Bruges also qualify.
- Repetitive Name: Katurian K Katurian in The Pillowman.
- Rule of Funny: "Let's play England and Ireland!" *egg to the head*
- Running Gag: In Cripple: "Ireland can't be so bad if [American, French, colored fellows, sharks] want to move here!"
- Seinfeldian Conversation
- Sorry Billy, But You Just Don't Have Legs
- Strange Syntax Speaker: Most everyone, especially older characters. It's essentially what you would get if you crossed Hiberno-English with Mamet Speak. Parodied "How Are Things In Irish Drama?", the Forbidden Broadway take on Beauty Queen:
Mag: It's an old crone I'm getting to be, Maureen, an old crone...
Maureen: Stop reversing your syntax, you hateful cow! You'd try the patience of a saint!
- The X of Y: Several titles
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