A Behanding in Spokane by Martin McDonagh

(pb; 2010, 2011: play)

From the back cover

"A dingy motel room. Small-town America. Carmichael travels with a suitcase full of hands, but he wants his own back.

"Toby has a hand that he'd like to sell Carmichael for the right price.

"Marilyn wishes that Toby had never stolen that hand from the museum.

"Mervyn thinks Marilyn is pretty hot. He works reception, though he wouldn't call himself a receptionist. Life and death are up for grabs, and fate is governed by imbeciles and madmen in this darkly comic new play from the acclaimed playwright Martin McDonagh. A Behanding in Spokane turns over American daily existence, exposing the obsessions, prejudices, madness, horrors, and, above all, absurdities that crawl beneath it."

Review

McDonagh, the director/screenwriter of In Bruges (2008), Seven Psychopaths (2012) and other films, has written another violent, darkly hilarious and non-P.C. piece that pushes most social boundaries, with its intriguing characters, able sketch-work and take-no-prisoners outlook. This is an excellent play, one worth reading if you are not easily offended, and are a fan of his other output.

When it was staged in 2010, Christopher Walken played Carmichael, the racist sociopath; Sam Rockwell played Mervyn, the snarky hotel clerk; Anthony Mackie played Toby, the sly weed dealer; Zoe Kazan played Marilyn, Toby’s girlfriend.