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Martin McDonagh
Plays: 1
The Beauty Queen of Leenane, A Skull in Connemara, The Lonesome West
The Leenane Trilogy: ‘Confirms McDonagh as both a writer of staying power and an individual talent within a powerful tradition, with something distinctive and important to say. His is a voice you will want to hear again. ’ Sunday Times
The Beauty Queen of Leenane: ‘His ear for the absurdities of speech, his control of a potentially fatal undercurrent of violence, the mordantly black humour which turns your laughter into horror in a split-second, add up to a pungent, poignant drama. ’ Mail on Sunday
A Skull in Connemara: ‘The play is part whodunnit, part blood-soaked comedy-farce, a combination of brutish violence and raw, rowdy, black comedy. ’ Sunday Times
The Lonesome West ‘An extraordinary play where two brothers, one of whom has killed their father, are closeted together in undying hostility like a penned-up Cain and Abel. ’ Guardian
Martin McDonagh’s first play The Beauty Queen of Leenane was the 1996 winner of the George Devine Award, won the Writer’s Guild Award for Best Fringe Play and also the Evening Standard Award for Most Promising Newcomer. The play was nominated for six Tony awards, of which it won four, and a Lawrence Olivier award (the BBC Award for Best New Play). The Beauty Queen of Leenane is the first in Martin McDonagh’s Leenane Trilogy; A Skull in Connemara and The Lonesome West complete the cycle. A Skull in Connemara was nominated for an Oliver Award for Best New Comedy. Martin McDonagh’s most recent play, The Cripple of Inishmaan, is the first in a new trilogy of Aran Island plays.
by the same author
The Cripple of Inishmaan
The Lieutenant of Inishmore
MARTIN MCDONAGH
Plays: 1
The Leenane Trilogy
The Beauty Queen of Leenane
A Skull in Connemara
The Lonesome West
introduced by Fintan O’Toole
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Contents
A Chronology
Introduction
THE BEAUTY QUEEN OF LEENANE
A SKULL IN CONNEMARA
THE LONESOME WEST
Martin McDonagh
A Chronology
1996
The Beauty Queen of Leenane opens the new Town Hall Theatre, Galway in a Druid Theatre Company/Royal Court co-production and later transfers to the Royal Court Theatre Upstairs, London.
Winner of the George Devine Award, the Writers’ Guild Award for Best Fringe Play and the Evening Standard Award for Most Promising Newcomer. The play is nominated for a Lawrence Olivier Award (the BBC Award for Best New Play).
1997
The Cripple of Inishmaan, winner of the 1996/7 Pearson Television Theatre Writers’ Scheme Best Play prize and the first in a new trilogy of Aran Island plays, opens at the Royal National Theatre, London.
A Skull in Connemara and The Lonesome West premiere in Ireland and London in a Druid/Royal Court co-production. Presented with a second revival of The Beauty Queen of Leenane, the three plays form The Leenane Trilogy. A Skull in Connemara is nominated for a Lawrence Olivier Award for Best New Comedy.
1998
The Beauty Queen of Leenane opens at the Atlantic Theater in New York and then transfers to Broadway in April. The play is nominated for six Tony awards, including Best Play, and is the winner of four.
