The Cripple of Inishmaan

Rating:
Summary: An outstanding play!
Review: "The Cripple of Inishmaan" by Martin Macdonagh is an excellent play about the lives and happenings of the people from Inishmaan. Fearful of water after his parents alledgly died in it he will/has never crossed water. Now that a Hollywood film director comes to make a film in a neibhouring island "The man from Aran", Billy decides that it's time to leave Eileen and Kate who have minded him since childhood. The women are totally destressed about his departure and turn to gluttony and senility for consolation. The news comes fronm the local newsteller Johnnypateenmike that Billy has Gone to Hollywood. However having failed in Hollywood Billy returns to Inishmaan to face all the people that he has left behind. He considers suicide but then Helen(a loudspoken local girl) agrees to go on a date with him- even though he is deformed in every possible way. This is a beautifully told story and would draw a tear from a stone. Read it now!

Rating:
Summary: "Cripple of Inishmaan" tells the truth.
Review: I have not yet had the chance to read "The Cripple of Inishmaan," however I have had the rare opportunity to see it performed at the Pioneer Memorial Theater in Salt Lake City. This play is absolutely amazing. I enjoyed it from start to finish, despite some of the harsh language. It only served as tool to further explore the characters. This play gave me the opportunity to explore a huge range of emotions in a short amount of time. I was laughing when it started and crying when it ended. The story is beautiful and gives a true and realistic view of humanity as we know it today.

Rating:
Summary: "Cripple of Inishmaan" tells the truth.
Review: I have not yet had the chance to read "The Cripple of Inishmaan," however I have had the rare opportunity to see it performed at the Pioneer Memorial Theater in Salt Lake City. This play is absolutely amazing. I enjoyed it from start to finish, despite some of the harsh language. It only served as tool to further explore the characters. This play gave me the opportunity to explore a huge range of emotions in a short amount of time. I was laughing when it started and crying when it ended. The story is beautiful and gives a true and realistic view of humanity as we know it today.

Rating:
Summary: A wonderful play
Review: I just saw a wonderful production of this play at the American Repertory Theatre in Cambridge. The playbill said that it was part of a trilogy. I was hoping to find the other two here. I believe they were called the Lieutenant of Inishmore and The Banshees of Inisheer. This play might have resonated with me a little more deeply because my great-grandparents emigrated from the Aran Islands to Boston, and I can't help but think they made the right decision.

Rating:
Summary: Outstanding Characters
Review: I wish the story didn't end. Mr. McDonagh has a great gift for telling a story. The way his characters interact is outstanding. If you haven't read his Beauty Queen of Leenane, I highly recommend it!

Rating:
Summary: We're not really under 13.
Review: This play is by Martin McDonagh, an award-winning playwright whose previous Irish play, The Beauty Queen of Leenane, won a Tony award for Best Play. The Cripple of Inishmaan focuses on the lives of the residents of Inishmaan in 1934. We follow Billy the cripple, the main character of this play. The supporting characters include: Helen, a feisty young lass who has a tongue that would offend even the most colorful drunk. Billy's two aunts, Kate, who talks to rocks, and Eileen, who runs a sweets store. Johnnypateenmike, the town gossip, as well as BabbyBobby who is constantly getting his old lady drunk, and finally Bartley, Helen's younger brother. This is a riveting story that will bring you on a roller coaster ride of emotion. You will experience love, hate, compassion, joy, sadness, but most of all, you will laugh. This play is hysterical! We would recommend reading it or seeing it to anyone who enjoys theater, or just likes Irish culture, or even if you like Hollywood in the 1930's. The story centers on Billy and his wanting to be in a film that is being made on the neighboring island of Inishmoore, The Man of Aran. To get to the island, he has to tell everyone that he has tuberculosis so that they will feel sorry for him and let him go. Billy later decides to leave his aunts and the island and go to Hollywood with the rest in an attempt to fulfill his dream of becoming a film actor. Does Billy really have tuberculosis? Does he have what it takes to make it in the harsh world that is Hollywood? There's only one way to find out.

Rating:
Summary: My favorite McDonagh!!!!
Review: Wonderfully dark, mean and hysterical, but under it all is the message that we all need family, community and each other. McDonagh has an incredible way with very natural stage dialogue and his characters are unique and vivid. I laughed on every page and winced with every vicious attack. Although some may argue that the play is hateful and sad, I have read few plays as ultimately life affirming. To use every characters' sentiments, Ireland mustn't be such a bad place if Martin McDonagh writes so well about it!