Black Comedy Essay

PART TWO – WRITTEN RESPONSE: DRAMA ESSAY

How do the two plays you have studies investigate the theatrical nature of Black Comedy?

The theatrical nature of black comedy is to dramatise controversial issues in order to evoke the audience to assess and reflect upon the issues presented, influenced by their interpretation of the play and their own individual experiences. The black comedy plays The Lieutenant of Inishmore, by Martin McDonagh and The Shape of Things, by Neil Labute, explore societal and political issues through a range of dramatic styles and techniques. Both texts investigate the edge of moral, social, political and cultural norms, and use dramatic styles and techniques to confront the audience with the controversial and the taboo in order to provoke serious thought in an audience.

The Lieutenant of Inishmore is a play that addresses the absurdity of terrorism as a whole and explores how it is represented culturally through the events and context of the play. In The Lieutenant of Inishmore, Martin McDonagh explores and challenges controversial issues and concerns throughout the play; these issues are key features of the play and provoke the audience to question their individual moral beliefs. McDonagh uses dramatic styles and techniques to engage the audience and represent particular ideas and images of satirical carnage. By dramatising controversial issues in order to evoke the audience to assess and reflect upon the issues presented, influenced by their interpretation of the play and their own individual experiences, the play The Lieutenant of Inishmore, and explores the theatrical nature of black comedy.

In the play, The Lieutenant of Inishmore, Martin McDonagh explores the key features of barbarity and mindless fanaticism through dramatic forms and performance styles. McDonagh creates scenes of gore and outrageous action, such as the scenes when the characters Donny and Davey are cutting us human limbs, Mairead shoots the eyes of...