A Century of Irish Drama

Widening the Stage

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Edited by Stephen Watt, Eileen Morgan and Shakir Mustafa,

Foreword by Sivaun O'Casey

Indiana University Press

Due/Published December 2000, 416 pages, paper

ISBN 025321419X

This book traces a significant shift in 20th century Irish theatre from the largely national plays produced in Dublin to a more expansive international art form. Confirmed by the recent success outside of Ireland of the "third wave" of Irish playwrights writing in the 1990s, the new Irish drama has encouraged critics to reconsider both the early national theatre and the dramatic tradition it fostered. The contributors to this volume investigate contemporary Irish drama's aesthetic features and socio-political commitments and re-read the plays produced earlier in the century. Although these essayists cover a wide range of topics, from the productions and objectives of the Abbey Theatre's first rivals to mid-century theatre festivals, to plays about the "Troubles" in the North, they all reassess the oppositions so commonplace in critical discussions of Irish drama: nationalism vs. internationalism, high vs. low culture, urban experience vs. rural or peasant life.

Contents

Acknowledgments
Introduction: Re-thinking the Abbey and the Concept of a National Theatre--Eileen Morgan
Part One: Challenging the Received View of Early Twentieth-Century Irish Theatre
1. The Founding Years and the Irish National Theatre That Was Not-John P. Harrington
2. The Alternative Aesthetic: The Theatre of Irelandıs Urban Plays--Nelson Ó Ceallaigh Ritschel
3. Of Orangemen and Green Theatres: The Ulster Literary Theatreıs Regional Nationalism--Laura E. Lyons

Part Two: Theorizing and Historicizing Theatre Controversies
4. The Abbey and the Theatrics of Controversy, 1909-1915--Lucy McDiarmid
5. More Than a Morbid, Unhealthy Mind: Public Health and the Playboy Riots--Susan Cannon Harris
6. Saying "No" to Politics: Sean O'Casey's Dublin Trilogy--Shakir Mustafa
Part Three: Reconstructing Drama During the "Fatal Fifties"

7. OıCasey's The Drums of Father Ned in Context --Christopher Murray
8. Love and Death: A Reconsideration of Behan and Genet--Stephen Watt
9. Playing Outside with Samuel Beckett--Judith Roof

Part Four: Contemporary Theatre Projects and Revivals
10. Translating Women into Irish Theatre History--Mary Trotter
11. "Iıve Never Been Just Me": Re-Thinking Womenıs Positions in Christina Reidıs Plays--Carla J. McDonough
12. Neither Here Nor There: The Liminal Position of Teresa Deevy and Her Female Characters--Christie Fox
13. Playwrights of the Western World: Synge, Murphy, McDonagh--Jose Lanters
14. The Passion Theatre Companyıs Everyday Life--Lauren Onkey
Part Five: Irish History on the Contemporary Stage
15. The Book at the Center of the Stage: Frielıs Making History and The Field Day Anthology of Irish Writing--Kathleen Hohenleitner
16. "Ireland, the Continuous Past": Stewart Parkerıs Belfast History Plays--Marilynn Richtarik
17. Frank McGuinness and the Ruins of History--James Hurt
18. The End of History: The Millennial Urge in the Plays of Sebastian Barry--Scott T. Cummings
Bibliography
Contributors
Index