Mornin, Daniel 1956-

views updated

MORNIN, Daniel 1956-

PERSONAL:

Born January 10, 1956, in Belfast, Northern Ireland; married Aine Beegan, 1991; children: one son.

ADDRESSES:

Agent—Judy Daish, Judy Daish Associates, 2 St. Charles Place, Ladbroke Grove, London W10 6EC, England.

CAREER:

Playwright and novelist. Military service: British Royal Navy, seaman, 1974-77.

WRITINGS:

All Our Fault (novel; also see below), Hutchinson (London, England), 1991.

(Translator) Akos Nemeth, Muller's Dancers, published in Hungarian Plays, Nick Hern Books (London, England), 1996.

Nothing Personal (screenplay; adaptation of All Our Fault), Trimark Pictures, 1996.

PLAYS

Mum and Son, produced in London, England, 1981.

Kate, produced in London, England, 1983.

Getting Out, produced as Short of Mutiny in London, England, 1983.

Comrade Ogilvy, produced in London, England, 1984.

By the Border (one-act), produced in London, England, 1985.

The Murderers, produced in London, England, 1985.

Built on Sand, produced in London, England, 1987.

Weights and Measures, produced in London, England, 1987.

At Our Table, produced in London, England, 1991.

Author of the television play Border Country, 1991.

SIDELIGHTS:

Daniel Mornin is regarded as a technically accomplished playwright who is known for his mastery of dialogue and for the violence contained in many of his dramas. "Mornin's plays are often seen as a direct response to the effects and influences of being raised in Belfast during 'the Troubles,'" wrote a contributor to Contemporary Dramatists. "But the centrality of violence in much of his work suggests in its treatment that the author regards violence as part of a generic rather than local condition." For example, Mornin's debut play, Mum and Son, explores the violence contained within a family relationship, specifically the interactions between a loyal son and a predatory mother. Mornin has also addressed the connection between Greek tragedy and contemporary theater in plays such as Kate, in which he focuses on the incestuous relationship between a brother and a sister.

Weights and Measures, based on the life of serial killer Denis Nilssen, reveals Mornin's willingness to experiment. In the play, he incorporates a setting in which the audience can simultaneously view the different levels of a house and the various dramas played out in the characters lives. "Weights and measures … is a pivotal play for Mornin, who with it was consciously working to consolidate his practical skill as a writer of gripping dialogue while seeking to develop a paradigm for expanding his imaginative repertoire," wrote the Contemporary Dramatists contributor.

One of Mornin's most highly regarded plays is The Murderers. First staged in 1985 in London, the play tells the tale of a protestant boy named Tommy who returns to Belfast to revenge his father's death in a pub bombing. He verbally abuses his sister and joins a Protestant paramilitary group, where he is accepted after murdering a prisoner. Eventually, however, Tommy turns against the group when they ask him to join a bombing raid to sidetrack a truce. In a review of the play in the Times of London, Irving Wardle felt that, on a certain level, Mornin extended the stereotype of Irish drunks who like to fight. Nevertheless, he noted that the "play is the work of an able and impassioned writer." According to the Contemporary Dramatists essayist, "The play's formal achievement is to extend the play's climax to an unbearable pitch. It anatomizes the psyche of working-class men, not undifferentiated but as a complex of interdependent relationships initiated in blood and secured by tribal fealty."

Mornin is also author of the novel All Our Fault and the subsequent screenplay based on the novel titled Nothing Personal. Once again, Mornin focuses on the "Irish troubles" circa 1975 and a Protestant paramilitary group. After the bombing of a Protestant bar, fighting erupts. As one of the group's younger members, Ginger, begins to become mentally unstable, another group member, Ginger's friend Kenny, is ordered to kill him. Writing in the New Republic, Stanley Kaufmann felt that Mornin's screenplay holds "no special interest" other than reversing the point of view from the typically portrayed Catholic perspective to the Protestant outlook. In a review of the movie on the Reelviews Web site, James Berardinelli complained that the characters are not "well-developed," but added that film addresses "how a legacy of violence and bloodshed is passed down from generation to generation."