The Irish Play on the New York Stage 1874-1966

by Harrington, John P.

• ISBN13: 9780813120331
• ISBN10: 0813120330
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 1997-11-06
• Publisher: Univ Pr of Kentucky

Summary

" Over the years American -- especially New York -- audiences have evolved a consistent set of expectations for the "Irish play." Traditionally the term implied a specific subject matter, invariably rural and Catholic, and embodied a reductive notion of Irish drama and society. This view continues to influence the types of Irish drama produced in the United States today. By examining seven different opening nights in New York theaters over the course of the last century, John Harrington considers the reception of Irish drama on the American stage and explores the complex interplay between drama and audience expectations. All of these productions provoked some form of public disagreement when they were first staged in New York, ranging from the confrontation between Shaw and the Society for the Suppression of Vice to the intellectual outcry provoked by billing Waiting for Godot as "the laugh sensation of two continents." The inaugural volume in the series Irish Literature, History, and Culture, The Irish Play on the New York Stage explores the New York premieres of The Shaughraun (1874), Mrs. Warren's Profession (1905), The Playboy of the Western World (1911), Exiles (1925), Within the Gates (1934), Waiting for Godot (1956), and Philadelphia, Here I Come! (1966).

Table of Contents

Introduction	1	(8)
1 Dion Boucicault, the Irish Play, and the Politics of Reconciliation	9	(25)
2 The Bernard Shaw Cult, New York, 1905	34	(21)
3 Synge's Playboy, the Irish Players, and the Anti-Irish Irish Players	55	(20)
4 James Joyce Downtown	75	(24)
5 Sean O'Casey and Within the Gates: The Irish Playwright Comes to New York	99	(24)
6 Waiting for Godot in New York	123	(22)
7 Brian Friel: Erin on Broadway	145	(21)
Notes	166	(14)
Index	180