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Inishmaan: Population 150
"[The Aran Islands] are both real and mythical
at the same time.
If you're looking for the End of the World and the
Garden of Eden rolled into one,
search no further. In fact if you search any further
you'll drown."
Terry
Eagleton
The setting for Martin McDonagh's play is a real place with
a rich and fascinating history. Inishmaan, population 150,
is one of three Aran Islands located thirty miles west of
Galway. Situated between Inishmore ("Big Island") and Inisheer
("East Island"), Inishmaan ("Middle Island") is a rocky, isolated
landmass little more than three miles wide. Its inhabitants
still speak Irish as well as the more predominant national
language, English. In fact, as Terry Eagleton suggests in
his new book The Truth about the Irish, "Over the years,
the Aran Islands have attracted as many visiting anthropologists
as the Amazon basin. In fact some of the Aran folk used to
wonder if the world beyond their islands was populated entirely
by linguists and anthropologists. " Early in the twentieth
century, Eagleton explains, "many ardent Irish nationalists
made their way from middle-class Dublin, notebooks and Irish
dictionaries in hand, to savor this unspoilt bit of old Ireland.
The islanders found it hard to give these enthusiasts their
full attention, intent as they were on how to get off these
[expletive deleted] rocks to a decent life on the mainland."
Central to the plot of The Cripple of Inishmaan is
the arrival of a Hollywood director who has come to the islands
to film a documentary. Cripple Billy will attempt to escape
his certain future on the island by running off to Hollywood
with the film company. 'Tis true--there really was a Hollywood
director, Robert Flaherty, who came to Inishmore in 1934 to
film what would become a famous documentary, The Man of
Aran. Flaherty's work is often credited as the first documentary
film, and a clip from it is used in our production.
Inishmaan has also been a Mecca for writers, including the
much-admired Anglo-Irish playwright John Millington Synge,
who spent summers in residence on Inishmaan between 1898 and
1902. The cottage where he lived is now something of a shrine.
Synge set his famous tragedy Riders to the Sea (1902)
in Inishmaan. This classic play depicts the struggle between
man and nature as a fishing family loses yet another of its
men to the unforgiving sea.
Martin McDonagh's play, set in the 1930s, deals with some
of the same harsh realities of life on the islands, but does
so in an absurdly comic and curiously modern fashion. Fintan
O'Toole describes McDonagh's Inishmaan as a place where "people
live out their lives suspended between the real landscape
they inhabit and the images that fill their screens. Left
behind by relentless social change, these people have nothing
to do but turn inwards. They have no battles to fight but
an endless civil war against those they know most intimately"
(American Theatre Magazine, July/August 1998).
The Irish storytelling tradition runs deep in Martin McDonagh,
but the Irish language patterns and characterizations that
are central to his work had to be reclaimed through exploration
of his extended family and his heritage. Born of Irish parents,
McDonagh actually grew up in Camberwell, a district in south
London. His chief exposure to his Irish roots came through
summer holidays in his parents' native territory, Connemara
and Sligo on the western coast. His plays have been described
as part sitcom, part slapstick, and--above all--darkly, humorously
Irish.
Taking up the mantle of "Irish writer" is a heavy burden--to
walk in the footsteps of William Butler Yeats, James Joyce,
John Millington Synge, Sean O'Casey and Samuel Beckett. Yet
McDonagh has managed to earn multiple awards for his plays
during his short tenure in the theatre. In 1996 he won the
George Divine Award for Most Promising Playwright and the
Evening Standard Award for Most Promising Newcomer to the
British Stage. The Beauty Queen of Lenane, originally
staged at the Druid Theater in Galway, then at the Royal Court
in London's West End, won the 1996 Writer's Guild Award for
Best Fringe Play. After its successful transfer in February
of 1998 to the Atlantic Theatre Company in New York, The
Beauty Queen of Lenane then moved to Broadway, where it
garnered three Tony Awards and was also nominated for Best
Play. The Royal National Theatre of London first produced
The Cripple of Inishmaan. In April, 1998, it opened at
the Public Theatre in New York and immediately sold out its
run. Robert Brustein, Artistic Director of American Repertory
Theatre, hails Martin McDonagh as "the first great dramatist
of the 21st century." McLennan Theatre is pleased
to stage his debut in Waco.
Cindy SoRelle, Dramaturg
Critical Reviews:
"[McDonagh is] the first great dramatist of the twenty-first
century."
Robert Brustein, Artistic Director American Repertory Theatre
"When members of the audience finally stopped laughing,
we knew this was a somewhat different McDonagh and that this
was going to be an amazing piece of theatre."
David Roberts, review of The Cripple of Inishmaan at
the Public Theater, NY
"McDonagh may or may not be the greatest, but he is certainly
the freshest, most confident new voice in the theater to come
along in years."
Richard Zoglin, Time Magazine
"The play is a madcap tall tale populated with people
who remain endearing even at their worst moments."
Clifford Ridley, Philadelphia Inquirer
"McDonagh is a born storyteller . . . the dialogue fizzes,
the characters crackle . . . a tough, boisterous, gifted play."
The London Times
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