The unstoppable rise of Martin McDonagh continues with his smooth transition from theatre to film with Six Shooter, and a well-deserved victory in the Best Live Action Short Film at the Oscars.
The son of parents from Galway, McDonagh was born and raised in London, but Irish themes have predominated in his work.
Now 36, he first received acclaim when The Beauty Queen of Leenane was staged in London nine years ago, marking the beginning of his trilogy that continued with A Skull in Connemara and The Lonesome West. His latest play, The Pillowman, received rave reviews on Broadway last year, and another of his plays, The Lieutenant of Inishmore, was very well received when it opened at the Atlantic theatre in New York last week.
Given that McDonagh often cited filmmakers as an influence on his work - David Lynch, Martin Scorsese, Terrence Malick and Quentin Tarantino - his move into movies was inevitable, and has been achieved with true cinematic flair in Six Shooter. That half-hour film follows a tense encounter between two men who meet as strangers on an Iarnród Éireann train. One (Brendan Gleeson) is a grieving widower; the other a loquacious, possibly psychotic young man (Ruaidhri Conroy). The consequences are violent.
Funded by the Irish Film Board and Channel 4, Six Shooter was given a timely repeat by RTÉ on Sunday night, an hour before the start of the Oscar ceremony, and it will be shown on Channel 4 at 12.05am tomorrow night. In his acceptance speech at the Oscars, McDonagh paid special thanks to his leading actors, Gleeson and Conroy.
"Ruaidhri, I'm sorry you couldn't be here tonight," he said. "I hope they let you in the next time." That was a reference to Conroy being refused admission to the US last week, when he travelled to attend the Oscars, on the grounds that he had overstayed his visa while performing in a McDonagh play in New York in 1998. McDonagh added: "I'd like to say hi to my mom and dad in Ireland, and a big hello to everyone involved with The Lieutenant of Inishmore at the Atlantic in New York. Thanks."
