Martin McDonagh

Martin McDonagh is an Irish writer, playwright and screenwriter. He was born into a poor family. He spent his childhood and young years in England. He was influenced by his older brother who wanted to be a writer. Later, McDonagh half-jokingly explained his motives as follows: writing is the best of all works, because it requires only a head, pencil and paper. Such motives (“easy earnings”) are not uncommon among beginner writers, but success comes (or does not come) depending on the presence of more

Martin McDonagh is an Irish writer, playwright and screenwriter. He was born into a poor family. He spent his childhood and young years in England. He was influenced by his older brother who wanted to be a writer. Later, McDonagh half-jokingly explained his motives as follows: writing is the best of all works, because it requires only a head, pencil and paper. Such motives (“easy earnings”) are not uncommon among beginner writers, but success comes (or does not come) depending on the presence of talent and perseverance. Martin was the last one. While living on unemployment benefits, he spent 7 to 8 hours a day at his desk creating scripts for television series and radio plays that were rejected by theaters and television studios.

But the first of the theater’s accepted (and 21st of the written) plays, “Beauty Queen from Linean”, broke popularity records on Broadway and brought the author several literary awards. Almost all subsequent works were also awarded awards. Performances on the plays of McDonagh are on the stages of the leading theaters of the world, including part of the repertoire of the Moscow Art Theatre. Russian critics compare McDonagh to Chekhov and Ostrovsky.

Theatre critics note the filigree clarity of dialogue in McDonagh's plays. The audience feels the high energy of the performances, despite the fact that the plots of his plays are gloomy, to say the least. His "Beauty Queen" is a 40-year-old woman forced to live in the Irish wilderness with a half-crazy mother and with no prospect of any change. And what is the episode from "Lieutenant from Inishmore Island" worth? Two men talk about how to cure ringworm in a cat. Nothing like that, it would seem... If you do not take into account that one of the interlocutors is tied up and hung upside down, and the other stands next to him with a dangerous razor in his hands. McDonagh's last play, "Pillow Man," is about a person's responsibility for every word they say.
In addition to plays, McDonagh wrote scripts for several films. /