Kate Powers Frank McGuinness writes plays about creating identity through one s own voice by speaking one s imagination in order to connect with other people.
Imagination offers escape from oneself and, ultimately, access to one s interior life.
The person who refuses to use his or her voice refuses to know both others and the self, thereby accepting as a self-destructive substitute, society s prepackaged ideas and received beliefs. The social contexts in which McGuinness s characters exist may appear as closed and static as do those of his fellow Irishman Samuel Beckett a half century ago. However, while Beckett s characters are trapped by various forms of tyranny, McGuinness s characters actively and freely shape themselves, giving hope to their lives. Chance, unpredictability, and adventure intervene. Life mirrors language as patterns form, then break apart.