Home Literary Studies Flying Free from History and Reality: Dramatic Representations of the “Crocodile Dilemma” in the Theatre of Martin McDonagh
Article
Licensed
Unlicensed Requires Authentication

Flying Free from History and Reality: Dramatic Representations of the “Crocodile Dilemma” in the Theatre of Martin McDonagh

  • Debora Biancheri EMAIL logo
Published/Copyright: November 4, 2015

Abstract

The essay proposes a reading of Martin McDonagh’s controversial play, The Lieutenant of Inishmore, applying aporetic logic in order to explore the possibility of appraising the dynamics of violence portrayed on stage without having to rely on an extensive knowledge of the Irish background. Without completely decoupling the play from Irish history, but superimposing a postmodern theoretical discourse framed around the concept of the “crocodile dilemma,” the Lieutenant will be evaluated alongside The Beauty Queen of Leenane, The Pillowman and other works that deal with conflicts occurring within contexts less heavily affected by the socio-geographical boundaries of a particular state or territory. By conveying a sense of the plays in production, the argument is made for the importance of directorial choices in guiding the reception towards a detached intellectual re-elaboration rather than an emphatic emotional response, which is often incongruous with the subversive charge inherent to McDonagh’s work.

Works Cited

Arac, Jonathan. Postmodernism and Politics. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1986. Print.10.5749/j.ctttv83bSearch in Google Scholar

Baudrillard, Jean. The Illusion of the End. Redwood: Stanford University Press, 1994. Print.Search in Google Scholar

–––. Simulacra and Stimulation. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1994. Print.Search in Google Scholar

–––. Simulations. Trans. Paul Foss, Paul Patton, and Philip Beitchman. Semiotext(e). Cambridge MA: MIT Press, 1983. Print.Search in Google Scholar

Bonner, Frances and Paul de Gay. “Representing the Enterprising Self: Thirtysomething and Contemporary Consumer Culture.” Theory, Culture and Society 2.9 (1992): 67–92. Print.10.1177/026327692009002004Search in Google Scholar

Elam, Diane. “Romancing the Postmodern.” The Postmodern History Reader. Ed. Keith Jenkins. London: Routledge, 1997. 65–83. Print.Search in Google Scholar

Fricker, Karin. “Druid basks in ‘Beauty’ Treatment/Druid Basks in Beauty’s’ Glow.” Variety 17–23 Aug. 1998. Druid Theatre Archive, James Hardiman Library, NUI Galway. Print.Search in Google Scholar

Hassel, Gerald. Review. What’s on in London 13 April 1996. Print.Search in Google Scholar

Hollinger, Robert. Hermeneutics and Praxis. University of Notre Dame Press, 1985. Print.Search in Google Scholar

Hynes, Garry. “‘Monstrous children:’ Garry Hynes in conversation.” The Theatre and Films of Martin McDonagh. Ed. Patrick Lonergan. Bloomsbury, 2012. Print.Search in Google Scholar

Jenkins, Keith. The Postmodern History Reader. Routledge, 1997. Print.Search in Google Scholar

Kearney, Richard. The Wake of Imagination: Ideas of Creativity in Western Culture [1980]. London: Hutchinson, 1988. Print.Search in Google Scholar

Lanters, José .“‘Like Tottenham:’ Martin McDonagh’s postmodern morality tales.” The Theatre and Films of Martin McDonagh. Ed. Patrick Lonergan. Bloomsbury, 2012. Print.Search in Google Scholar

Lonergan, Patrick. The Theatre and Films of Martin McDonagh. Bloomsbury, 2012. Print.10.5040/9781408166581Search in Google Scholar

–––. Theatre and Globalization: Irish Drama in the Celtic Tiger Era. Basingstoke and New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2009. Print.Search in Google Scholar

–––. “Too Dangerous to be Done? Martin McDonagh’s The Lieutenant of Inishmore.” Irish Studies Review 13. 1 (2005): 65–78. Print.10.1080/0967088052000319535Search in Google Scholar

–––. “‘The Laughter Will Come of Itself; the Tears are Inevitable:’ Martin McDonagh, Globalization and Irish Theatre Criticism.” Irish Theatre Criticism. Eds. Katherine Fricker and Brian Singleton. Special Issue Modern Drama 47. 4 (2004): 636–658. Print.10.3138/md.47.4.636Search in Google Scholar

Lyotard, Jean-François. The Postmodern Condition: A Report on Knowledge. University of Minnesota Press, 1984. Print.10.2307/1772278Search in Google Scholar

McDonagh, Martin. The Pillowman. New York: Dramatists Play Service, 2003. Print.Search in Google Scholar

–––. The Lieutenant of Inishmore. London: Methuen, 2001. Print.Search in Google Scholar

–––. Plays I: The Beauty Queen of Leenane; A Skull of Connemara; The Lonesome West. London: Methuen, 1999. Print.Search in Google Scholar

–––. Interview. Sunday Tribune 17 Nov. 1996. Druid Theatre Archive, James Hardiman Library, NUI Galway. Print.Search in Google Scholar

McGonagle, Declan. Irish Art Now: from the Politic to the Political. London: Merrell Holberton, 1999. Print.Search in Google Scholar

Moroney, Mic. Rev. of The Lieutenant of Inishmore. Irish Independent 25 June 1997. Druid Theatre Archive, James Hardiman Library, NUI Galway. Print.Search in Google Scholar

Morash, Chris. A History of Irish Theatre 1601–2000. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002. Print.Search in Google Scholar

Nowlan, David. “Celebration Worthy of a New Theatre.” Irish Times 2 Feb. 1998. Druid Theatre Archive, James Hardiman Library, NUI Galway. Print.Search in Google Scholar

O’Toole, Fintan, Julia Furay and Redmond O’Hanlon. Critical Moments: Fintan O’Toole on Modern Irish Theatre. Dublin: Carysfort Press, 2003. Print.Search in Google Scholar

Page, Adrian. The Death of the Playwright?: Modern British Drama and Literary Theory. Basingstoke and New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 1992. Print.10.1007/978-1-349-21906-3Search in Google Scholar

Rorty, Richard. “Postmodern Bourgeois Liberalism.” Hermeneutics and Praxis. Ed. Robert Hollinger. Paris: University of Notre Dame Press, 1985. 214–222. Print.Search in Google Scholar

Sierz, Aleks. In-Yer-Face Theatre: British Drama Today. London: Faber and Faber, 2001. Print.Search in Google Scholar

Spencer, Charles. Rev. of The Lieutenant of Inishmore. Daily Telegraph 8 March 1996. Druid Theatre Archive, James Hardiman Library, NUI Galway. Print.Search in Google Scholar

States, Bert O. Great Reckonings in Little Rooms: On the Phenomenology of Theater. London: University of California Press, 1987. Print.Search in Google Scholar

Watt, Steven. Postmodern/Drama: Reading the Contemporary Stage. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1998. Print.10.3998/mpub.15754Search in Google Scholar

Published Online: 2015-11-4
Published in Print: 2015-11-1

© 2015 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston

Articles in the same Issue

  1. Frontmatter
  2. Frontmatter
  3. Articles
  4. Flying Free from History and Reality: Dramatic Representations of the “Crocodile Dilemma” in the Theatre of Martin McDonagh
  5. Quoting Poetry, Translating Music (and Vice Versa): Mediation in Tennessee Williams’s Something Cloudy, Something Clear
  6. Staging Childhood Holocaust Survivor Trauma: Diane Samuels’s Kindertransport
  7. “Times long contrasts:” o e d I p u s (2014)
  8. How Diasporic?: Psychogeographies of the New Britain in (Post-)Millennial British Theatre
  9. The Passive Gaze and Hyper-Immunised Spectators: The Politics of Theatrical Live-Broadcasting
  10. Reviews
  11. Jade Rosina McCutcheon and Barbara Sellers-Young, eds. Embodied Consciousness: Performance Technologies. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2013, 229 pp., £55. Nicola Shaughnessy, ed. Affective Performance and Cognitive Science: Body, Brain and Being. London: Bloomsbury, 2013, 300 pp., £75.
  12. Martin Middeke, Peter Paul Schnierer, Christopher Innes, and Matthew C. Roudané, eds. The Methuen Drama Guide to Contemporary American Playwrights. London: Bloomsbury, 2014, 479 pp., £ 19, 99.
  13. Birgit Däwes and Marc Maufort, eds. Enacting Nature: Ecocritical Perspectives on Indigenous Performance. Brussels: Peter Lang, 2014, 262 pp., € 50.30 (softcover).
  14. Christophe Collard. Artist on the Make: David Mamet’s Work across Media and Genres. Nancy: Presses Universitaires de Nancy, 2012, 366 pp., 25 €.
  15. Vicky Angelaki, ed. Contemporary British Theatre: Breaking New Ground. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2013, xxxi + 192 pp., € 67.00.
  16. Dan Rebellato, ed. Modern British Playwrighting 2000–2009. London: Bloomsbury, 2013, ix + 340 pp. (paperback).
  17. Jürs-Munsby, Karen, Jerome Carroll, and Steve Giles, eds. Postdramatic Theatre and the Political: International Perspectives on Contemporary Performance. London: Bloomsbury, 2013, vii + 324 pp., £65 (hardback), £19.99 (paperback), £19.99 (PDF ebook).
Downloaded on 21.1.2026 from https://www.degruyterbrill.com/document/doi/10.1515/jcde-2015-0019/html
Scroll to top button