The Methuen Drama Guide to Contemporary Irish Playwrights

481 Pages·2010·1.652 MB·English

by  Middeke, Martin, Schnierer, Peter Paul

the METHUEN DRAMA
guide to CONTEMPORARY
IRISH PLAYWRIGHTS
MartinMiddekeholdstheChairofEnglishLiteratureattheUniversity
of Augsburg. He read English, German and Philosophy at the
UniversitiesofPaderbornandReading,wasapost-doctorateFulbright
scholar at New York University, and in 2008 and 2009 taught as
VisitingProfessorattheUniversityofJohannesburg.Hismajorfieldsof
research are Literary Theory, Nineteenth-Century English Fiction,
Samuel Beckett, and Contemporary British and Irish Fiction and
Drama.HeisCo-EditorofAngliaandGeneralEditoroftheCDEbook
series.HispublicationsincludeStephenPoliakoff(1994)andtwostudies
on the aesthetics of time-consciousness in the novel (Zeit und Roman,
2002; Die Kunst der gelebten Zeit, 2004). Book-length publications
which he (co-)edited include Anthropological Perspectives (1998);
Biofictions(1999);Self-ReflexivityinLiterature(2005);Dramaand/after
Postmodernism (2007); and Literature and Circularity (2009).
Forthcoming in 2010 is a book project on Melancholia as a Central
DiscourseinEnglishLiteraryandCulturalHistory.
Peter Paul Schnierer read English, German, Political Sciences and
PhilosophyattheuniversitiesofLondon,GreenwichandTübingen.Hehas
taughtfull-timeattheuniversitiesofGreenwich,Buckingham,Tübingen,
NorthernArizona,MarylandandVienna,andhecurrentlyholdstheChair
ofEnglishLiteratureattheUniversityofHeidelberg.Hisresearchinterests
includemoderndrama,Irishliterature,literaryhypertextsandtheGothic
tradition.HispublicationsoncontemporaryEnglishdramaincludetwo
books (Rekonventionalisierung im englischen Drama 1980–1990, 1994;
andModernes englisches Drama und Theater seit 1945: Eine Einführung,
1997), oneeditedcollection(ContemporaryDramainEnglish:Beyondthe
Mainstream,1997)andonecollectionco-editedwithEllenRedling(Non-
StandardFormsofContemporaryDramaandTheatre,2008).Hehasalso
publishedamonographonliterarydemonisationsincetheRenaissance.
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the METHUEN DRAMA
GUIDE TO CONTEMPORARY
IRISH PLAYWRIGHTS
EditedandwithanintroductionbyMartinMiddekeand
PeterPaulSchnierer
MethuenDrama
MethuenDrama
13579108642
FirstpublishedinGreatBritainin2010byMethuenDrama
MethuenDrama
A&CBlackPublishersLimited
36SohoSquare
LondonW1D3QY
www.methuendrama.com
Copyright©2010byMartinMiddekeandPeterPaulSchnierer
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assertedbytheminaccordancewiththeCopyright,DesignandPatentsAct,1988
ISBN9781408113462
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CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION vii
1 SEBASTIANBARRY 1
JürgenWehrmann
2 DERMOTBOLGER 19
ChristinaWald
3 MARINACARR 37
AleksSierz
4 ANNEDEVLIN 57
EnricaCerquoni
5 EMMADONOGHUE 73
CathyLeeney
6 BRIANFRIEL 89
NicholasGrene
7 MARIEJONES 112
CatrinSiedenbiedel
8 JOHNB.KEANE 129
JürgenKamm
9 THOMASKILROY 145
AnthonyRoche
10 HUGHLEONARD 162
EmiliePine
11 MARTINLYNCH 178
TomMaguire
12 OWENMcCAFFERTY 194
MarkPhelan
13 MARTINMcDONAGH 213
MartinMiddeke
14 FRANKMcGUINNESS 234
EamonnJordan
15 TOMMacINTYRE 251
DanielShea
16 CONORMcPHERSON 271
ClareWallace
17 GARYMITCHELL 290
PaulDevlin
18 TOMMURPHY 310
GeroldSedlmayr
19 DONALO’KELLY 328
PatrickLonergan
20 MARKO’ROWE 345
MichaelRaab
21 STEWARTPARKER 365
EberhardBort
22 CHRISTINAREID 385
ChristianGroße
23 J.GRAHAMREID 405
JochenAchilles
24 BILLYROCHE 423
PeterPaulSchnierer
25 ENDAWALSH 439
LisaFitzpatrick
INDEX 453
Introduction
MartinMiddekeandPeterPaulSchnierer
Unlike the literary genres of narrative fiction and poetry, drama and
its constitutive categories of dialogue, interaction and immediacy in
performance have by definition always had a close affinity to the
structures of the particular society they reflect. This very notably
appliestoIrelandbecause,undoubtedly,itwasthegenreofdramaand
theIrishNationalTheatremovementthatcreatedanationalidentity
for a colonised nation.1 However, the status of Irish drama and its
relationshiptotheBritishdramaticscenehasbeeninaconstantstate
offlux.
At the beginning of the twentieth century Lady Gregory, William
Butler Yeats, John Millington Synge, Sean O’Casey and a host of
other writers sought to put their talents to the cause of national
emancipation and anti-imperialist struggle. With the emergence of a
consciously Irish dramatic scene in Ireland itself, which inevitably
reflected aspects of Irish society specifically, the intermingling of
BritishandIrishdramatictalentofearlieryearsdecreased.Overtime,
however, this movement lost its force; for example, O’Casey
emigrated to England and Beckett went straight to France. And yet,
despite the gradual dissolution of the Irish National Theatre move-
ment,IrishandBritishdramaremainedshapedbytheconditionsand
structuresoftherespectivesocieties.
In the last two decades, however, the gap between what is
recognisablyIrishandBritishdramahasnarrowed.Thisrapprochement
isaresultoftwomajorpoliticalandeconomicupheavalsthatprovided
afundamentalchangeinIrishsocietyandresultedinitsmoreglobalised
structure becoming more like that of Britain again. At the end of the
1980s,Irelandsawthestartofaneconomicmiracleinindustry,trade,
tourism, public services, and especially in information technologies,
vii
MethuenDramaGuidetoContemporaryIrishPlaywrights
whichtransformedIrelandintooneofthemostglobalisedcountriesin
theworldwithinadecade.Economicgrowth(uptotenpercenteach
year),lowunemployment,taxesandinflationrates,alongwithahuge
potentialofwell-trainedyoungpeopleeagertoenterthelabourmarket
all resulted in Ireland attracting foreign investment. During this time,
Irelandalsounderwentapoliticaltransformationafteryearsofconflict
anddivision.Intheearly-andmid-1990sthepeaceprocessinNorthern
Ireland gained momentum, having come a long way from the
SunningdaleAgreementof1973,theterriblehungerstrikesoftheearly
1980s, the Anglo-Irish Agreement of 1985 and the IRA agreeing to a
ceasefire in 1994. This was consolidated in 1998 by the Good Friday
Agreement, which set the basis for a government consisting of parties
frombothsidesofthepoliticaldivide.
This period of economic growth and increasing political stability
hasbeenaccompaniedbyaradicalreshapingofIrishidentityasanew
Irelandhasemerged.Thishasincludedahostofprogressivechanges,
suchas:thepeaceprocess,economicboom,newsociallegislation,the
growing force of feminism and a (necessary) redefinition of mores,
identitiesandgender-roles,andtheelectionoftwofemalePresidents.
Atthesametime,IrishsocietyhasbeenfracturedbyChurchscandals,
an increasing crime rate and growing lawlessness and alienation.
Finally, there has been a slackening of the inclination towards
includingBritainintheevaluationofIrishidentity.
Irish society and Irish drama are in serious transition and even
thoughnoteverywritercoveredinthissurveycanbesaidtotranscend
national issues or even stereotypes, a product of this is that many
writersarenowequallyathomeinDublin,Galway,Londonorwhat
is still called the Irish diaspora. We are witnessing at the moment a
period of accelerated Irish history and an accumulation of identities
that have radically changed the structures of Irish society, albeit, for
betterorworse,inanoftenprecariousway:
Economic growth means that Ireland now seems in many
ways indistinguishable from other countries in the West,
prompting a growing sense of uncertainty about national
identity: ‘we’ may be wealthier, but it’s not clear what the
viii
INTRODUCTION
word‘we’referstoanymore.AspeacetakesrootinNorthern
Ireland, other divisions are becoming apparent throughout
the island – in terms of class, gender, race and other
characteristics. Perhaps most importantly, there is a growing
fearthatthecountryisdevelopingastrangeformofcollective
amnesia, a reluctance to acknowledge that its history is
dominated by failure: by mass emigration, military defeat,
economic stagnation and underdevelopment. So as we move
into the second decade of this century, Ireland is faced with
difficultquestions.Howcanwereconcilethememoryofthat
troubledpastwiththedesiretoenjoyanapparentlysuccessful
present? And if we let go of our histories, will we still
rememberwhoweare?2
Inevitably, the social and political shifts that surround contemporary
Irish playwrights have had an impact on their writing, and the
intersection between post-colonial and post-modern influences has
been channelled into elaborate aesthetic structures, which have cast
doubts on and, ultimately, seared such forms as the peasant play, the
religiousplay,thefamilyplayorthehistoryplayintheirrespectiveIrish
incarnations.
Our collection introduces twenty-five representative playwrights
of contemporary Irish drama. The chapters are written by a team of
internationally renowned specialists from the Republic of Ireland,
NorthernIreland,England,ScotlandandGermany.Eachchapterhas
a four-part structure: an introduction, including a short biographical
sketch of each playwright; a survey and concise analysis of the
published plays of the respective author in chronological order;
summarising statements on central topics and aesthetic techniques
and comments on existing critical reception and the position of the
playwrightinthediscourseofcontemporaryIrishtheatre;and,finally,
a bibliography of primary texts and a selected list of critical material.
For those playwrights with an exceedingly high output over decades,
the survey and analysis section has been limited to what seemed the
mostimportantworks.
Thetwenty-fivechaptersinthisvolumediscussatotalof190plays
ix