ABSTRACT

This comprehensive, accessible introduction to one of Britain’s leading contemporary playwrights and filmmakers outlines Martin McDonagh’s body of work, the key critical contexts for understanding and exploring his career, analysis of productions, and includes an exclusive interview with the director of his most recent stage work.

Analysis of McDonagh’s writing is broken down into three periods – his early Irish plays, his screenplays, and his later plays that move away from and outside of Ireland. Works are discussed thematically, giving a dynamic reading of the scripts and the ideas around which they circle. The book’s final section then delves in more detail into selected seminal productions of McDonagh’s writing, outlining key phases and transitions in his career.

Part of the Routledge Modern and Contemporary Dramatists series, Martin McDonagh is an essential guide for scholars and students who are setting out to understand the life and work of one of the most popular and acclaimed British dramatists and filmmakers of the twenty-first century.

chapter |5 pages

Introduction

Biography and Career

chapter 1|34 pages

Critical Frameworks

chapter 2|29 pages

The Irish Plays

chapter 3|31 pages

Films

chapter 4|27 pages

The Later Plays

chapter 5|10 pages

Interview with Director Matthew Dunster

chapter 6|10 pages

The Pillowman

Three Productions: National Theatre (2003), Curve Theatre, Leicester (2009), and Duke of York's Theatre (2023)

chapter |3 pages

Conclusion

McDonagh's Place on the Battlefield of the Culture Wars