A History of Irish Theatre 1601-2000

A History of Irish Theatre 1601-2000
Author: Chris Morash
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 348
Release: 2002
Genre: History
ISBN: 9780521646826

Chris Morash's widely-praised account of Irish Theatre traces an often forgotten history leading up to the Irish Literary Revival. He then follows that history to the present by creating a remarkably clear picture of the cultural contexts which produced the playwrights who have been responsible for making Irish theatre's world-wide historical and contemporary reputation. The main chapters are each followed by shorter chapters, focusing on a single night at the theatre. This prize-winning book is an essential, entertaining and highly original guide to the history and performance of Irish theatre.

The Ulster Literary Theatre and the Northern Revival

The Ulster Literary Theatre and the Northern Revival
Author: Eugene McNulty
Publisher:
Total Pages: 280
Release: 2008
Genre: History
ISBN:

This is the first book-length study dedicated to the Ulster Literary Theatre. Officially established in 1904, the same year as Dublin's Abbey Theatre, this Belfast nationalist theatre has long awaited a full reassessment of its role in the development of a specifically "Irish Drama". The Ulster Literary Theatre was considered by many contemporaries to be the equal of the Abbey Theatre, certainly in terms of energy, output and nationalist commitment. In the first decade of its existence this Belfast company produced a number of significant and exciting works, including the early efforts of Rutherford Mayne and the extraordinary burlesques of Gerald MacNamara. In so doing, it provided a key forum in which Ulster's cultural politics could be explored and performed. Drawing particularly on the northern group's early history, Eugene McNulty explores this intriguing performance history of Belfast's own nationalist theatre. In the course of this study a number of key issues are re-examined: the Ulster Literary Theatre's relationship with the Abbey Theatre; Ulster's role in the Irish Literary Revival; the interaction between northern cultural nationalism and an evolving Ulster Unionist politics. In all of this McNulty argues for a reassessment of the politics of the Revival, and insists upon the importance of a "northern revival" and its significance for a fuller understanding of this crucial period in Irish history.

Observe the Sons of Ulster Marching Towards the Somme

Observe the Sons of Ulster Marching Towards the Somme
Author: Frank McGuinness
Publisher: Samuel French, Inc.
Total Pages: 86
Release: 2004
Genre: Drama
ISBN: 9780573629587

Observe the Sons of Ulster Marching Towards the Somme was revived by the Abbey Theatre, Dublin in 1994 as part of an acknowledgement of the peace process. The production was subsequently taken to the Edinburgh Festival in 1995 and opened at the Royal Shakespeare Company's Barbican Theatre, London, in March 1996.

Ireland's National Theaters

Ireland's National Theaters
Author: Mary Trotter
Publisher: Syracuse University Press
Total Pages: 240
Release: 2001-04-01
Genre: Performing Arts
ISBN: 9780815628880

In the annals of Irish studies and theater history much has been written about the Abbey Theatre. Now, Mary Trotter not only sheds new Light on that company's history but also examines other groups with a range of political, religious, gender, and class perspectives that consciously used performance to promote ideas about nationalism and culture in Ireland at the turn of the last century. This innovative, interdisciplinary work details how different nationalist organizations with diverse political and artistic goals employed theater as an anticolonial tool. In Dublin's turbulent cultural and political arena during the first decades of the twentieth century, nationalist audiences read popular Irish melodramas in subversive ways; the Daughters of Erin staged tableaux of great women heroes; and the Abbey players earned both acclaim and apprehension within the nationalist community. Here is a compelling analysis of these and other groups' prominent role in Irish nationalism in the years before Easter 1916, and the way these political theaters gave birth to modern Irish drama.

A Century of Irish Drama

A Century of Irish Drama
Author: Stephen Watt
Publisher: Indiana University Press
Total Pages: 366
Release: 2000
Genre: History
ISBN: 9780253214195

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. On the occasion of the centenary of the first professional production of the Irish Literary Theatre, 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. A Century of Irish Drama includes essays on such figures as W. B. Yeats, Lady Gregory, J. M. Synge, Sean O'Casey, Brendan Behan, Samuel Beckett, Marina Carr, Brian Friel, Frank McGuinness, Christina Read, Martin McDonagh, and many more. Stephen Watt is Professor of English and Cultural Studies at Indiana University-Bloomington, and author of Postmodern/Drama: Reading the Contemporary Stage, Joyce, O'Casey, and the Irish Popular Theatre, and essays on Irish and Irish-American culture. He has also written extensively on higher education, most recently Academic Keywords: A Devil's Dictionary for Higher Education (with Cary Nelson). Eileen M. Morgan is a lecturer in English and Irish Studies at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. She is currently working on Sean O'Faolain's biographies of De Valera and on Edna O'Brien's 1990s trilogy, and is preparing a book-length study on the influence of radio in Ireland. Shakir Mustafa is a Visiting Instructor in the English department at Indiana University. His work has appeared in such journals as New Hibernia Review and The Canadian Journal of Irish Studies, and he is now translating Arabic short stories into English. Drama and Performance Studies--Timothy Wiles, general editor

A New History of Ireland Volume VII

A New History of Ireland Volume VII
Author: J. R. Hill
Publisher: OUP Oxford
Total Pages: 2025
Release: 2010-08-26
Genre: History
ISBN: 0191615595

A New History of Ireland is the largest scholarly project in modern Irish history. In 9 volumes, it provides a comprehensive new synthesis of modern scholarship on every aspect of Irish history and prehistory, from the earliest geological and archaeological evidence, through the Middle Ages, down to the present day. Volume VII covers a period of major significance in Ireland's history. It outlines the division of Ireland and the eventual establishment of the Irish Republic. It provides comprehensive coverage of political developments, north and south, as well as offering chapters on the economy, literature in English and Irish, the Irish language, the visual arts, emigration and immigration, and the history of women. The contributors to this volume, all specialists in their field, provide the most comprehensive treatment of these developments of any single-volume survey of twentieth-century Ireland.

The History of the Arts Council of Northern Ireland, 1943–2016

The History of the Arts Council of Northern Ireland, 1943–2016
Author: Lara Cuny
Publisher: Springer Nature
Total Pages: 307
Release: 2022-10-17
Genre: History
ISBN: 3031134095

This book presents the history of the Council for the Encouragement of Music and the Arts (CEMA) in Northern Ireland from its conception in 1943, and its successor organisation, the Arts Council of Northern Ireland (ACNI). Exploring the political and social impact of cultural policy in Northern Ireland, the book illustrates how the arts developed during the twentieth century and sheds light on the relationship between politics and culture. The author takes a closer look at the responsibilities of ACNI, and examines its interaction with the unionist government, which sought to influence how the organisation distributed its grants. Spanning the outbreak of the Troubles in the 1960s and the Peace Process in the 1990s, the ACNI evolved through a period of conflict and change, and therefore this book argues that there was an undeniable link between the changing political environment and the management of the arts in Northern Ireland. The arm’s length principle is analysed in relation to ACNI, examining the influence that the state had upon its management and governance. Offering a unique historical overview of the arts in Northern Ireland, this interdisciplinary book fills a gap in Irish history and presents insights into cultural policy, conflict resolution and political history.

The Oxford Handbook of Modern Irish Theatre

The Oxford Handbook of Modern Irish Theatre
Author: Nicholas Grene
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 952
Release: 2016-07-28
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN: 0191016349

The Oxford Handbook of Modern Irish Theatre provides the single most comprehensive survey of the field to be found in a single volume. Drawing on more than forty contributors from around the world, the book addresses a full range of topics relating to modern Irish theatre from the late nineteenth-century to the most recent works of postdramatic devised theatre. Ireland has long had an importance in the world of theatre out of all proportion to the size of the country, and has been home to four Nobel Laureates (Yeats, Shaw, and Beckett; Seamus Heaney, while primarily a poet, also wrote for the stage). This collection begins with the influence of melodrama, and looks at arguably the first modern Irish playwright, Oscar Wilde, before moving into a series of considerations of the Abbey Theatre, and Irish modernism. Arranged chronologically, it explores areas such as women in theatre, Irish-language theatre, and alternative theatres, before reaching the major writers of more recent Irish theatre, including Brian Friel and Tom Murphy, and their successors. There are also individual chapters focusing on Beckett and Shaw, as well as a series of chapters looking at design, acting, and theatre architecture. The book concludes with an extended survey of the critical literature on the field. In each chapter, the author does not simply rehearse accepted wisdom; all of the contributors push the boundaries of their respective fields, so that each chapter is a significant contribution to scholarship in its own right.