While The Cripple of Inishmaan is a fiction, it finds its basis in fact. Hollywood film director Robert Flaherty brought his crew to the Aran Islands in 1934 to make The Man of Aran, a documentary in the same man-against-nature format as his earlier success, Nanook of the North. The Venice International Film Festival awarded The Man of Aran a prize for Best Foreign Film. Other critics, however, found the documentary flawed by the manner in which it romanticizes poverty. While the conflict between man and nature may be noble in Hollywood terms, not all tales can be told in Hollywood terms. That's why The Cripple of Inishmaan finds itself equally obsessed with gruesome real-life poverty and romanticized Hollywood escape. The Cripple of Inishmaan opened in January of 1997, directed by Nicholas Hytner, in the Cottesloe Theatre at the Royal National Theatre, transferring to the larger Lyttelton auditorium in April of 1997. The Cripple of Inishmaan made its US debut at the Joseph Papp Public Theatre in New York in April of 1998 where, following the extraordinary success of The Beauty Queen of Leenane, it sold out its entire run while the play was still in rehearsal.
The story told by Martin McDonagh in The Cripple of Inishmaan is fiction, though based on some historical fact. As with all good Irish stories, the ending is never what you think it's going to be. The tale is entertaining, but the harsh reality is that the lives of those who lived on Inishmaan during the filming of The Man of Aran were filled with struggle and isolation and death. Take my word for it: it was a very brutal, difficult life. Perhaps the presence of humor, woven throughout the play, helps to soften the sorrow. It has for us. Dorothy's presence is woven throughout our production. We felt it at our rehearsals and anticipate it during the performances. Certainly, some audience members will feel her to be with us. She is a guiding force, yet! The Cripple of Inishmaan ticket will make you appreciate the life you live.
