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The Cripple of Inishmaan

Full-Length Play, Dramatic Comedy  /  4w, 5m

Martin McDonagh

Set on a remote island off the west coast of Ireland in 1934, The Cripple of Inishmaan is a strange comic tale in the great tradition of Irish storytelling that tells of the arrival of a Hollywood director to the small town.

The Cripple of Inishmaan

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  • Cast Size
    Cast Size
    4w, 5m
  • Duration
    Duration
    More than 120 minutes (2 hours)
  • SubGenre
    Subgenre
    Period
  • Audience
    Target Audience
    Adult
Accolades
Accolades

  • Nominee: 2014 Tony Award for Best Revival of a Play

Details

Summary

As word arrives on the remote island Inishmaan off the west coast of Ireland that the Hollywood director Robert Flaherty is coming to the neighboring island of Inishmore to film his movie Man of Aran, the one person who wants to be in the film more than anybody is young Cripple Billy, if only to break away from the bitter tedium of his daily life. The Cripple of Inishmaan is a strange comic tale in the great tradition of Irish storytelling.

History
The Cripple of Inishmaan premiered in the Cottesloe auditorium of the Royal National Theatre in London on 12 December 1996. The play then premiered on Broadway at the Joseph Papp Public Theater/New York Shakespeare Festival on 7 April 1998, where it was directed by Jerry Zaks. The play was later produced off-Broadway by the Atlantic Theater Company in conjunction with The Druid Theatre Company of Galway, Ireland on 21 December 2008. In 2013, the play returned to the Noël Coward Theatre in London’s West End for a sold-out run starring Daniel Radcliffe as Cripple Billy. That production transferred to Broadway at the Cort Theatre for a limited run starting on 20 April 2014.
Cast Attributes
Keywords
Performing Groups

KATE – Mid-60s.
EILEEN – Mid-60s.
JOHNNYPATEENMIKE – Mid-60s.
BILLY – 17-18. Crippled.
BARTLEY – 16-17.
HELEN – 17-18. Pretty.
BABBYBOBBY – Early 30s. Handsome, muscular.
DOCTOR MCSHARRY – Early 40s.
MAMMY – Early 90s.

  • Time Period 1930s
  • Setting

    The island of Inishmaan. 1934.

  • Features Period Costumes
  • Duration More than 120 minutes (2 hours)

Media

“Mr. McDonagh is a realist with rich gifts… He is immensely talented and bizarre.” – New York Observer

“McDonagh… is at root an Irish realist in the tradition of Synge, O’Casey, Friel and Billy Roche. He is also a born storyteller with a precocious sense of dramatic structure.” – The Times (London) 

“McDonagh’s comic talent appears unlimited, and he also has a way of mixing up his humor with a touch of the poet and a profound sense of tragedy always dangerously lurking on comedy’s untidy fringe. In short, young McDonagh is a playwright to reckon with.” – New York Post

“Beneath the volley of barbs and loopy postures lies the same bedrock of wistfulness and exasperation that makes The Beauty Queen of Leenane so poignant, Mr. McDonagh has again created characters for whom the line between cruelty and kindness is slender… the script features some unsettlingly surprising demonstrations of both affection and aggression.” – The New York Times

“McDonagh’s storytelling style…has the clarity and power of fable. Each character enters not only with his own idiosyncrasy but with his own distinct idiom. McDonagh skillfully juggles rhythms and repetitions so as to illuminate the sadness, defensiveness and longing for connection underneath the characters’ badinage.” – The New Yorker

Licensing & Materials

  • Minimum Fee: £85 per performance plus VAT when applicable.
    This title may have restrictions in place in Major Cities. Please submit a licence application to confirm specific availability.

Scripts

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Authors

Martin McDonagh

Martin McDonagh
Plays: THE PILLOWMAN (Tony nominee, Best Play 2005; Olivier Award Winner 2004), THE LIEUTENANT OF INISHMORE (Olivier Award Winner, Best Comedy 2003), THE BEAUTY QUEEN OF LEENANE (Tony nominee, Best Play 1998), THE LONESOME WEST (Tony nominee, Best Play 1999), A SKULL IN CONNE ...
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