BEHANDING's McDonagh: 'I Was Going To Do a Salinger and Disappear'

Playwright Martin McDonagh was featured in the New York Times on March 2 speaking about his most recent work, 'A Behanding in Spokane' which stars Academy Award winner Christopher Walken. The play opened on March 4 at Broadway's Gerald Schoenfeld Theatre.

The article explains that four years ago McDonagh had reached the conclusion he had "said enough as a young dramatist' and walked away from the theater. He spent years writing screenplays and directing the cult film 'In Bruges' only to eventually make his way back to the theatre.

"Running at the Gerald Schoenfeld Theater, the politically incorrect thriller follows a racist psychotic played by Christopher Walken who threatens to kill two small-time crooks (Zoe Kazan and Anthony Mackie) unless they returning his missing hand as promised. Reflecting on his show during a recent interview, Mr. McDonagh said with a laugh, "I realize that I am never going to grow up."

"When he started working on "Behanding," he said, he intended to recreate his original burst of artistic inspiration but found himself quickly paralyzed. After all, he wasn't some unknown writer anymore. There were expectations to live up to. "So I decided I'm just going to write something trashy," he confessed. "It could be a runt of a story, which it is, in a good way."

As for the genesis of his latest creation, "Mr. McDonagh began with the image of a man shooting a gun into a closet, where the audience could hear the sound of someone struggling inside: Gun? Check. Explosion? Check. Blood? Probably. Following this gambit is a series of familiar McDonagh elements: airborne body parts, unexpectedly sensitive killers and a propulsive, outlandish plot. And once he finished a draft, he realized that he couldn't just stick it in a drawer. "I was going to do a Salinger and disappear," he said. "Then I thought, I want to have some fun."

To read the rest of the story in The New York Times, click here. 

A BEHANDING IN SPOKANE starring Academy Award-winner Christopher Walken and stage and screen stars Sam Rockwell, Anthony Mackie and Zoe Kazan opened on Broadway on Thursday, March 4 and will play a strict 16-week engagement. Directed by directed by John Crowley, the production is playing on Broadway at the Gerald Schoenfeld Theatre (236 West 45th Street). A BEHANDING IN SPOKANE will be McDonagh's first play to originate on Broadway.

The title is just the starting point; take a man searching for his missing hand, two con artists out to make a few hundred bucks, and an overly curious hotel clerk, and the rest is up for grabs. A BEHANDING IN SPOKANE is Martin McDonagh's hilariously black comedy, a world premiere which marks McDonagh's first American-set play. An all-star cast of four will be announced shortly.

Martin McDonagh's plays include, Broadway: The Beauty Queen of Leenane, The Lonesome West, The Pillowman (directed by John Crowley) and The Lieutenant of Inishmore, all of which received Tony Award® nominations for Best Play; and Off-Broadway: The Cripple of Inishmaan. He received the Academy Award for Best Live Action Short in 2006 for his film Six Shooter and his most recent film, In Bruges, received an Oscar nomination for Best Original Screenplay.

John Crowley received a Tony Award® nomination for his direction of The Pillowman which he also directed at the National Theatre in London. Other London credits include Love Song, On an Average Day and Macbeth (West End), Tales From Hollywood, Juno and the Paycock, The Maids, How I Learned to Drive and Into The Woods (Donmar Warehouse). His films include Is Anybody There?, Boy A and the television film of Harold Pinter's "Celebration." He is currently directing A Steady Rain for Broadway starring Hugh Jackman and Daniel Craig.

A BEHANDING IN SPOKANE will be produced by Robert Fox.