Dramatist Martin McDonagh Says He Will Not Write Another Play

By Robert Simonson
01 Mar 2006

Martin McDonagh
Martin McDonagh
Photo by Aubrey Reuben

Martin McDonagh, who is currently enjoying an Off-Broadway success with The Lieutenant of Inishmore, told The New Yorker that he does not intend to write any more plays.

McDonagh is the subject of a lengthy profile by Irish drama critic Fintan O'Toole in the March 6 issue of the New Yorker. Toward the end of the piece O'Toole quotes the writer as saying "he has no intention of writing another play."

The article's final quote, however, seems to leave open the possibility that McDonagh will take up the pen again after the passage of some years.

"I think I've said enough as a young dramatist," McDonagh said. "Until I've lived a little more, and experienced a lot more things, and I have more to say that I haven't said already, it will just feel like repeating the old tricks... I just want to write for the love of it. And also grow up, because all the plays have the sensibility of a young man."

His plays include The Lieutenant of Inishmore, The Beauty Queen of Leenane, The Lonesome West, The Cripple of Inishman and A Skull in Connemara. His most recent composition, The Pillowman, which played on Broadway last season, was thought by most critics to represent an artistic leap forward for the playwright. McDonagh is 35 years old.