Martin McDonagh Biography

Martin McDonagh is often compared to celebrated playwrights like John Millington Synge and David Mamet. McDonagh is famous for writing dark comedies with the background setting of Ireland, where he spent most of his summer breaks. His stories are notorious for using intense symbolism and twisted climaxes. McDonagh was born and brought up in London, England, by his construction worker father and housekeeper mother. He has a younger brother who is a known screenwriter, John McDonagh. He left school when he was 16 to pursue his love for writing by watching movies and reading books. After a decade of doing so, in 1994, he wrote his first 7 plays of which many were eventually staged in London, like: ‘The Cripple of Irishmaan’, ‘The Lieutenant of Irishmore’ ,‘The Pillowman’, ‘The Beauty Queen of Leenane’, etc. For many of these plays he has been accorded with prestigious awards and nominations like Tony Award, the Laurence Olivier Award, etc. He is not only a playwright of excellent creative power but also a well established screenplay writer and director of movies like: ‘Six Shooters’, ‘In Bruges’ and ‘Seven Psychopaths’. He is known in the world of theater as the one who gave a new genre to the theater – the ‘in your face’ theater, for his plays and scripts are often strongly witted and harshly realistic.