Experimental Irish Theatre After W.B. Yeats

by Walsh, Ian R.

• ISBN13: 9780230300958
• ISBN10: 0230300952
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2012-04-15
• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan

Summary

This book examines experimental Irish theatre that ran counter to the naturalistic 'peasant' drama that became synonymous with Irish playwriting. Focusing on four marginalised playwrights who premiered works after the death of W.B. Yeats, it charts an alternative tradition linking the experimentations of the early Irish theatre movement with the innovations of contemporary Irish and international drama. Drawing on archival material never before published this study rediscovers the vibrant and dissenting smaller theatre companies and playwrights of a forgotten era in Irish theatre. In its concentration on the margins and its emphasis on the performative rather than literary affects of the plays, this book offers a fresh alternative telling of the Irish theatrical story, important works are recovered and the breadth of the Irish canon is widened. This book will prove attractive and satisfying to students, theatregoers, and readers of theatre history, performance studies, modernism, and Irish studies.

Author Biography

IAN R. WALSH Graduate of University College Dublin, Ireland, where he completed his doctoral research and where he is now a Lecturer in the School of English, Drama and Film. He has also worked as a theatre reviewer and as a freelance director of Theatre and Opera.

Table of Contents

Introduction AcknowledgementsAn Irish Theatre Laboratory: Experimental ContextsExperiments in Representation: Jack B. YeatsExperiments in Gender: Elizabeth ConnorExperiments in Verse: Donagh MacDonaghExperiments in Theatre: Maurice MeldonContinuing ExperimentationNotes Select BibliographyIndex