Martin McDonagh draws inspiration from every corner of the arts and entertainment industries. The title of A Skull in Connemara comes from Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot, and its plot bears a striking resemblance to that of Playboy of the Western World by JM Synge. What is unique to McDonagh’s work is the way he combines elements of the theatre tradition with non-theatrical (and less “high brow”) styles such as soap opera, Tarantino films and punk rock. On this page you’ll find a gallery of some of McDonagh’s influences, both stated by the playwright and implied through his plays: a hodge-podge of high and low.

Theater

JM Synge – The Playboy of the Western World 
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Samuel Beckett  – Waiting for Godot
LUCKY: …the skull fading fading fading and concurrently simultaneously what is more for reasons unknown in spite of the tennis on on the beard the flames the tears the stones so blue so calm alas alas on on the skull the skull the skull the skull in Connemara in spite of the tennis the labors abandoned left unfinished graver still abode of stones in a word I resume alas alas abandoned unfinished the skull the skull in Connemara in spite of the tennis the skull alas the stones Cunard … tennis . . . the stones . . . so calm . . . Cunard . . . unfinished . . .
 

Literature

Jorge Luis Borges

Film

TV

Music