Is the author of the Leenane trilogy the unwilling heir to Irish tradition?
Martin McDonagh says he rarely goes to the theatre, contends that he writes plays only to make the money to produce his own films, and claims to know little about the work of the great Irish playwrights like John Millington Synge, Sean OCasey, and Samuel Beckett. Scholars and critics, however, suspect otherwise. They have nonetheless identified the influence of Synge and Beckett in his work and continue to hail him as the latest in a distinguished line of Irish dramatists and writers. Newsweeks Jack Kroll even called McDonagh “the prodigy of the western world” in a tongue-in-cheek reference to his canny relationship to his predecessors. McDonagh, who has said that he wants “to write plays that shake you up a little bit,” is frequently compared to John Millington Synge, whose explosive 1907 play The Playboy of the Western World shook up quite a lot. Synges protagonist, the young Christy Mahon, believes he has killed his father with the blow of a spade. He is celebrated as a hero by the
Martin McDonagh says he rarely goes to the theatre, contends that he writes plays only to make the money to produce his own films, and claims to know little about the work of the great Irish playwrights like John Millington Synge, Sean O’Casey, and Samuel Beckett. Scholars and critics, however, suspect otherwise. They have nonetheless identified the influence of Synge and Beckett in his work and continue to hail him as the latest in a distinguished line of Irish dramatists and writers. Newsweek’s Jack Kroll even called McDonagh “the prodigy of the western world” in a tongue-in-cheek reference to his canny relationship to his predecessors. McDonagh, who has said that he wants “to write plays that shake you up a little bit,” is frequently compared to John Millington Synge, whose explosive 1907 play The Playboy of the Western World shook up quite a lot. Synge’s protagonist, the young Christy Mahon, believes he has killed his father with the blow of a spade. He is celebrated as a hero by t
