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After being a fan of some of McDonagh's movies for some time now, I was very excited when a good friend of mine sent me this collection of plays to read. After reading the book, I can happily say that my excitement was justified, and I am eager to read more of McDonagh's plays, as he is a quite talented playwright.

Each of the three plays in this collection, forming a trilogy of stories in the rural town of Leenane, touches on themes of life and death, of love and relationships, and the individual stories dive into grief and loneliness and regret. That being said, McDonagh's black comedic style keeps these stories from becoming too bleak, at least superficially. It's not often that I find myself laughing out loud while reading a book, but I was during this one. On top of that, I think these stories are written in such a way that how bleak they really are is a bit of a matter of interpretation. After finishing the book, I found myself feeling rather sad, but hopeful. I hoped that the characters in these stories had done the right thing, and would find love or redemption or acceptance or whatever they were looking for in the future. I think it's a testament to McDonagh's play-writing abilities that I was so moved by characters I had spent such a short amount of time with.

I also thought it was interesting to see how these plays, and their dialogue, would evolve into the movies that McDonagh has written and directed. I don't think I had actually read a play since high school, and so it has been a while since I've read a story in such a dialogue-focused medium. The lines were sharp, without a wasted word, and I could easily picture the back-and-forth between some characters as a scene in a movie like In Bruges or something similar. I really enjoyed seeing these earlier works and getting glimpses of what would become some of my most favorite movies.

This collection of plays manages to be funny and bleak, depressing and uplifting, and made me really feel with and for these characters. I am very much looking forward to reading more of McDonagh's plays.