| The Cripple of inishmaan | |
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Methuen cover |
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| Written by | Martin McDonagh |
| Date premiered | 12 December 1996 |
| Place premiered | Royal National Theatre, London |
| Original language | English |
| Genre | Black Comedy |
| Setting | 1934 on the island of Inishmaan |
| IOBDB profile | |
The Cripple of Inishmaan is a dark comedy by Martin McDonagh who links the story to the real life filming of the documentary Man of Aran.
Set on the small Aran Islands community of Inishmaan off the Western Coast of Ireland, circa 1934, the inhabitants are excited to learn of a Hollywood film crew's arrival in neighbouring Inishmore to make a documentary about life on the islands. "Cripple" Billy Claven, eager to escape the gossip, poverty and boredom of Inishmaan, vies for a part in the film, and to everyone's surprise, the orphan and outcast gets his chance.[1]
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The Cripple of Inishmaan opened on 12 December 1996 at Royal National Theatre (Cottesloe) in London.[2] In 1998, it opened at Joseph Papp Public Theater in New York City, again with Ruaidhri Conroy in the title role.[3] In the same year, Frederick Koehler played Billy in Los Angeles. In December 2008, The Cripple of Inishmaan was produced in New York City by the Atlantic Theater Company in conjunction with The Druid Theatre Company of Galway, Ireland.
Martin McDonagh said of his play "It isn’t as good as the other two",[4] that he wrote prior to The Cripple of Inishmaan. He added, "I hope someday they’ll be regarded as true Irish stories, I don’t think they are at this minute. It will take a long time for the baggage of me being a Londoner to be in the past." In another interview, , after the play was performed on Inishmaan in 2011, it was reported that "Mr. McDonagh used an unprintable euphemism to explain that it has never been his intent to take the measure of his fellow Irishmen cruelly"[5]
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