Breaking the Frame

Abstract

Martin McDonagh is often referred to by journalists and reviewers as a most brutal humanist based on the frequent elements of horror and violence in his plays and films, but these elements always function as a contrast to manifestations of the deeply humane. His works as a dramatist, as a screenplay writer and a film director continuously and consciously mix tragedy with comedy, obscenity with poesy, the expected with the unexpected. In my thesis I am about to observe and analyse this subvertion of various frames that contribute to the fact that Martin McDonagh is one of the most highly acclaimed playwrights of his generation.