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Martin McDonagh (born 1970) is a contemporary Irish playwright. He was born in Camberwell, London, to Irish parents. His mother and father later moved back to Galway, leaving Martin and his brother in London. 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 and primal symbology is reminiscent of J.M. Synge.
He has to date developed two dark comedic trilogies, the Galway trilogy and the Aran Islands trilogy, as well as some radio plays.
The Galway Trilogy
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.
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.
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.
The Aran Islands Trilogy
The Cripple of Inishmaan (1996)
A little crippled boy schemes to get a part in Man of Aran. Dark comedy ensues.
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...Dark comedy and blindness ensues.
The Banshees of Inisheer
The grand finale of the Aran Islands trilogy.
Other Plays
McDonagh has also written The Pillowman (2003), in which a horror writer is interrogated after several local children have been murdered, and The Mamturk Rifleman.
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