This course will examine the development of theatre in Ireland throughout the 20th and early 21st centuries, with a particular emphasis on contemporary Irish writing.
It will evaluate the development of the internationally renowned Irish dramatic tradition, and also look at how traditional texts are being interrogated by Irish theatre practitioners and rewritten by contemporary Irish playwrights. The course will examine the cultural contexts informing the writing, production, and reception of specific texts. Contemporary modes of production will also be a key focus in class discussion. To this end the course also combines regular theatre visits; ensuring that students remain attuned to the roles of the director, writer, actor and audience in the generation of meaning in the theatre.
Additional student cost:
Students share the cost of theatre performances.
Attendance policy:
Because IES courses are designed to take advantage of the unique contribution of the instruction and the lecture/discussion format, regular class attendance is mandatory. Any missed class, without a legitimate reason will be reflected in the final grade. A legitimate reason would include a documented illness or family bereavement. Travel, (including travel delays) is not a legitimate reason.
Learning outcomes:
The course has two major components; the study of written dramatic texts and the response of students to plays in performance. Where possible, texts covered during this course will be studied both ways. Likewise the contemporary relevance and performance possibilities of the classic plays will be compared to the wide range of dramaturgical practices being presently utilised by Ireland’s contemporary playwrights.
By the end of the course students will be able to demonstrate:
An understanding of Irish theatre history.
An understanding of contemporary performance practices.
An understanding of the vital political and social role that theatre plays in Irish culture.
An ability to articulate the relationship between dramatic text and live performance.
Method of presentation:
Classes will begin with presentation of a short lecture discussing the cultural, social and political contexts from which set dramatic texts emerge. The dynamics of the seminar following will be highly interactive; scene readings, class presentation, scene studies, and performance reviews will be important.
Required work and form of assessment:
Students are required to read proscribed plays and short critical readings in advance of class. Students should be prepared to contribute to class discussion, which is a key part of continuous assessment for this course. Mid-term assessment will be a 750-word theatre review. Students will be expected to deliver a longer essay on a set topic at the end of the course. Assessment will be weighted as follows:
Theatre Review – 30% (Mid-term)
Participation and attendance – 30%
Essay - 40% (Final paper)
Please note: Attendance in class and at the theatre is mandatory.
content:
Week 1: Establishing Tradition
This seminar will provide an introduction to Irish theatre history and explore the relationship between theatre and the formation of the Irish Free State at the early Abbey Theatre. It will explore two key texts in the early Abbey’s performance history and discuss the way contemporary politics shaped the reception of dramatic texts throughout the twentieth century. It will conclude by showing production material from more recent productions/‘versions’ of the texts in the last 10 years.
Play Texts:
W.B. Yeats, Cathleen Ní Houlihan, 1904.
J. M. Synge, The Playboy of the Western World, 1907.
Required Secondary Reading:
Gregory, Lady Augusta. ‘Our Irish Theatre’ in Modern Irish Drama, ed. John P. Harrington (London: Norton and Norton, 1991).Pp 377-386
Morash, Christopher, ‘A Night at the Theatre 4, The Playboy of the Western World,’ A History of Irish Theatre, 1601-2000 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002). Pp130-138
Week 2: Urban Identities
This lecture will look at the emergence of a counter-tradition to the dominant thematic and dramaturgical trends in Irish theatre. It will also examine the emergence of state funding for theatre in Ireland and the resulting policies of censorship in the new Republic.
Play Texts:
Sean O’Casey, Juno and the Paycock, 1924
Sean O’Casey, The Plough and the Stars, 1926
Required Secondary Reading:
Morash, Christopher, ‘A Night at the Theatre 5, The Plough and the Stars,’ A History of Irish Theatre, 1601-2000 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002). Pp163-171
Week 3: Double Worlds: Theatre of the 1960s
This class will concentrate on the emergence of critical voices in Irish theatre of the 1960s. It will examine the conflict between the cultural rhetoric and reality of Irish life and how this impacted upon the construction of character in modern dramatic texts. It will also discuss how modernization during the 1960s forced a rupture that produced some of the most important tragic texts in twentieth-century Irish theatre.
O’Toole, Fintan, The Politics of Magic: The Work and Times of Tom Murphy (New Island/Nick Hern, 1994 expanded edition), pp.57-93
Week 4: Alternative Voices
In this seminar the focus will be on how theatre being produced outside of Ireland by Irish Writers challenged dominant cultural concerns and modes of production. Focusing on the work of Samuel Beckett it will provide an alternative performance history to the text- centered work of early and mid-twentieth century Irish drama. Students will be given an opportunity to experiment with the performance of a short Beckett text in this class.
Play Texts:
Samuel Beckett, Happy Days, 1961
Samuel Beckett, Come and Go, 1965
Required Secondary Reading:
McMullan, Anna, ‘Beckett as Director: The Art of Mastering Failure’, in The Cambridge Companion to Beckett, (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1994) pp.196-208
Week 5: From Partition to Peace Process: Theatre of Northern Ireland
This seminar will provide an introduction to theatre and performance as it responded to the period of conflict in Northern Ireland known as ‘The Troubles.’ It will trace a genealogy of this particular aspect of Irish history through dramatic texts. Topics for discussion include competing versions of cultural identity and the representation of violence on the stage.
Play Text:
Brian Friel, Translations, 1980.
Owen McCafferty, Quietly, 2012.
Required Secondary Reading:
Marilyn Richtarik ‘The Field Day Theatre Company’ in Shaun Richards (ed.) The Cambridge Companion to Twentieth Century Irish Drama (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004), pp. 191-203.
Ronan McDonald ‘Between Hope and History: The Drama of the Troubles’, in Dermot Bolger (ed.) Druids, Dudes and Beauty Queens: The Changing Face of Irish Theatre (Dublin: New Island, 2001), pp. 231-249.
Week 6: Perspectives on Gender and Sexuality
This seminar will re-position the history of Northern Ireland through the discourse of gender politics. It will offer an alternative narrative of conflict and healing, and examine the new hierarchies of power-play in post-peace process Northern Ireland.
Play text:
Christina Reid, The Belle of Belfast City, 1986
Rosemary Jenkinson, The Bonefire, 2006
Required Secondary Reading:
Foley, Imelda, ‘Interview with Christina Reid’, The Girls in the Big Picture: New Voices in Ulster Theatre (Belfast: Blackstaff Press, 2003)
O’Dwyer, Riana, ‘The Imagination of Women’s Reality: Christina Reid and Marina Carr’ in Theatre Stuff: Critical Essays on Contemporary Irish Theatre, pp. 236-248.
Week 7: Perspectives on Gender and Sexuality II
This seminar will discuss issues of gender and sexuality in Irish culture, from the early twentieth-century to the present day, using texts previously discussed throughout the course, as well as two new texts. The two set play-texts for this seminar will focus in on the late 1980s and early 1990s, when Irish gender narratives began to be questioned in the culturally and in the theatre. Students will be encouraged to use their accumulated knowledge to question the representation of gender and sexuality in earlier texts, and how the signification of the body on stage can be used to challenge cultural perceptions.
Play Texts:
Frank McGuiness, Observe the Sons of Ulster Marching Towards the Somme, 1985
Emma Donoghue, I Know My Own Heart, 1993
Required Secondary Reading:
McMullan, Anna, ‘Unhomely Stages: Women Taking (a) Place in Irish Theatre’, in ed Bolger, Dermot, Druids, Dudes and Beauty Queens: The Changing Face of Irish Theatre (Dublin: New Island, 2001), pp72-90
Grene, Nicholas, The Politics of Irish Drama (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press,1999), pp.242-260.
Week 8: Revising the Rural
This seminar will examine how young writers in the 1990s begin to deconstruct and reinvent the tropes of canonical Irish drama, specifically the rural, realist tradition of twentieth-century theatre in Ireland. It will examine how staging the supernatural creates a ruptured space in which established cultural mores can be subverted.
Play Texts:
Conor McPherson, The Weir, 1997
Marina Carr, By the Bog of Cats,1998
Required Secondary Reading:
Hughes, Declan, ‘Who the Hell Do We Still Think We Are?’ in ed Jordan, Eamon Theatre Stuff: Essays on Contemporary Irish Theatre (Dublin: Carysfort Press, 2000)
Merriman, Victor, ‘Decolonisation Postponed: Theatre of Tiger Trash’ in Ed Jordan, Eamonn, The Theatre of Martin McDonagh: A World of Savage Stories (Dublin: Carysfort Press, 2006.
Week 9: The Irish Play on the Global Stage
This seminar will explore the global dissemination of Irish culture through theatre historically, but in particular in the 1990s. Topics for discussion will include cultural authenticity; globalization and cultural difference; culture as an economic commodity; and postmodern representational practices, particularly the influence of film on dramaturgical methods.
Play Text:
Martin McDonagh, The Cripple of Inismaan, 1996
Film Text:
Martin McDonagh, Six Shooter, 2004
Required Secondary Reading:
Vandevelde, Karen, ‘The Gothic Soap of Martin McDonagh’, in Theatre Stuff: Critical Essays on Contemporary Irish Theatre, pp. 292-302.
Lonergan, Patrick, Theatre and Globalisation: Irish Drama in the Celtic Tiger Era (London, Palgrave Macmillan: 2009) pp101-127.
Week 10: Urban Identities II: From Tenement to Tower Block
This seminar will focus on the emergence of new urban drama in contemporary Dublin. It will look the interplay between form and fantasy in two radically different texts: one which features extreme representations of sexuality and violence, the other which offers alternative modes of constructing communities.
Playtexts:
Mark O’Rowe, Howie the Rookie, 1998
Elaine Murphy, Little Gem, 2010
Required Secondary Reading:
Di Benedetto, Stephen, ‘Shattering Images of Sex Acts and Other Obscene Stage Transgressions in Contemporary Irish Plays by Men’ in Performing Ireland: Australasian Journal of Drama Studies, pp. 46-65.
Fricker, Karen, ‘Same Old Show: The Performance of Masculinity in Conor McPherson’s Port Authority and Mark O’Rowe’s Made in China’, The Irish Review No. 29, Irish Theatre (Autumn, 2002), pp. 84-94
Week 11: Storytelling as Theatre
In Enda Walsh’s plays the cultural obsession with storytelling reaches two different conclusions. This lecture will examine representations of language on the stage, through theme and form. Building on the work from the previous seminar, particular attention will be paid to the use of the monologue form and its’ performance possibilities.
O’Toole, Fintan, ‘Stage Should be for Action Not Words’, The Irish Times,(9th July 2007)
Week 12: New modes of Practice
This class will focus on the growing practices of non-text based theatre in Ireland. It will discuss current trends of performance art, documentary theatre, and community composite practice. There will be no set primary text for this class. Discussion will be guided by audio-visual material shown in class. Students will also be required to share their observations about new trends indicated by theatre visits during the term.
Required readings:
W.B. Yeats, Cathleen Ní Houlihan, 1904.
J. M. Synge, The Playboy of the Western World, 1907.
Gregory, Lady Augusta. ‘Our Irish Theatre’ in Modern Irish Drama, ed. John P. Harrington (London: Norton and Norton, 1991).Pp 377-386
Morash, Christopher, ‘A Night at the Theatre 4, The Playboy of the Western World,’ A History of Irish Theatre, 1601-2000 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002). Pp130-138
Sean O’Casey, Juno and the Paycock, 1924
Sean O’Casey, The Plough and the Stars, 1926
Morash, Christopher, ‘A Night at the Theatre 5, The Plough and the Stars,’ A History of Irish Theatre, 1601-2000 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002). Pp163-171
O’Toole, Fintan, The Politics of Magic: The Work and Times of Tom Murphy (New Island/Nick Hern, 1994 expanded edition), pp.57-93
Samuel Beckett, Happy Days, 1961
Samuel Beckett, Come and Go, 1965
McMullan, Anna, ‘Beckett as Director: The Art of Mastering Failure’, in The Cambridge Companion to Beckett, (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1994) pp.196-208
Brian Friel, Translations, 1980.
Owen McCafferty, Quietly, 2012.
Marilyn Richtarik ‘The Field Day Theatre Company’ in Shaun Richards (ed.) The Cambridge Companion to Twentieth Century Irish Drama (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004), pp. 191-203.
Ronan McDonald ‘Between Hope and History: The Drama of the Troubles’, in Dermot Bolger (ed.) Druids, Dudes and Beauty Queens: The Changing Face of Irish Theatre (Dublin: New Island, 2001), pp. 231-249.
Christina Reid, The Belle of Belfast City, 1986
Rosemary Jenkinson, The Bonefire, 2006
Foley, Imelda, ‘Interview with Christina Reid’, The Girls in the Big Picture: New Voices in Ulster Theatre (Belfast: Blackstaff Press, 2003)
O’Dwyer, Riana, ‘The Imagination of Women’s Reality: Christina Reid and Marina Carr’ in Theatre Stuff: Critical Essays on Contemporary Irish Theatre, pp. 236-248.
Frank McGuiness, Observe the Sons of Ulster Marching Towards the Somme, 1985
Emma Donoghue, I Know My Own Heart, 1993
McMullan, Anna, ‘Unhomely Stages: Women Taking (a) Place in Irish Theatre’, in ed Bolger,
Dermot, Druids, Dudes and Beauty Queens: The Changing Face of Irish Theatre (Dublin: New Island, 2001), pp72-90
Grene, Nicholas, The Politics of Irish Drama (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press,
1999), pp.242-260.
Conor McPherson, The Weir, 1997
Marina Carr, By the Bog of Cats,1998
Hughes, Declan, ‘Who the Hell Do We Still Think We Are?’ in ed Jordan, Eamon Theatre Stuff: Essays on Contemporary Irish Theatre (Dublin: Carysfort Press, 2000)
Merriman, Victor, ‘Decolonisation Postponed: Theatre of Tiger Trash’ in Ed Jordan, Eamonn, The Theatre of Martin McDonagh: A World of Savage Stories (Dublin: Carysfort Press, 2006.
Martin McDonagh, The Cripple of Inismaan, 1996
Martin McDonagh, Six Shooter, 2004
Vandevelde, Karen, ‘The Gothic Soap of Martin McDonagh’, in Theatre Stuff: Critical Essays on Contemporary Irish Theatre, pp. 292-302.
Lonergan, Patrick, Theatre and Globalisation: Irish Drama in the Celtic Tiger Era (London, Palgrave Macmillan: 2009) pp101-127.
Mark O’Rowe, Howie the Rookie, 1998
Elaine Murphy, Little Gem, 2010
Di Benedetto, Stephen, ‘Shattering Images of Sex Acts and Other Obscene Stage Transgressions in Contemporary Irish Plays by Men’ in Performing Ireland: Australasian Journal of Drama Studies, pp. 46-65.
Fricker, Karen, ‘Same Old Show: The Performance of Masculinity in Conor McPherson’s Port Authority and Mark O’Rowe’s Made in China’, The Irish Review No. 29, Irish Theatre (Autumn, 2002), pp. 84-94
Ed. Jordan, Eamonn. Martin McDonagh: A World of Savage Stories.(Dublin: Carysfort Press, 2006)
Kalb, Jonathan, Beckett in Performance, (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1989)
McMullan, Anna and Cathy Leeney, The Theatre of Marina Carr: ‘Before Rules Was Made’ (Dublin: Carysfort Press, 2002)
Morash, Christopher, A History of Irish Theatre, 1601-2000 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002
Murray, Christopher. Twentieth Century Irish Theatre: Mirror Up to Nation. (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1997)
O’Toole, Fintan. Tom Murphy: The Politics of Magic (London: Nick Hern, 1994)
Roche, Tony, Contemporary Irish Drama: from Beckett to McGuinness (Dublin: Gill and MacMillan, 1994)
Sihra, Melissa, Women in Irish Drama: A Century of Authorship and Representation (London: Palgrave, 2007)
Brief Biography of Instructor:
Dr. Sara Keating teaches courses in contemporary Irish theatre at Trinity College Dublin, University College Dublin, and TISCH School of the Arts, NYU. She writes about theatre for The Irish Times.
Contemporary Irish Drama
This course will examine the development of theatre in Ireland throughout the 20th and early 21st centuries, with a particular emphasis on contemporary Irish writing.
It will evaluate the development of the internationally renowned Irish dramatic tradition, and also look at how traditional texts are being interrogated by Irish theatre practitioners and rewritten by contemporary Irish playwrights. The course will examine the cultural contexts informing the writing, production, and reception of specific texts. Contemporary modes of production will also be a key focus in class discussion. To this end the course also combines regular theatre visits; ensuring that students remain attuned to the roles of the director, writer, actor and audience in the generation of meaning in the theatre.
Students share the cost of theatre performances.
Because IES courses are designed to take advantage of the unique contribution of the instruction and the lecture/discussion format, regular class attendance is mandatory. Any missed class, without a legitimate reason will be reflected in the final grade. A legitimate reason would include a documented illness or family bereavement. Travel, (including travel delays) is not a legitimate reason.
The course has two major components; the study of written dramatic texts and the response of students to plays in performance. Where possible, texts covered during this course will be studied both ways. Likewise the contemporary relevance and performance possibilities of the classic plays will be compared to the wide range of dramaturgical practices being presently utilised by Ireland’s contemporary playwrights.
By the end of the course students will be able to demonstrate:
Classes will begin with presentation of a short lecture discussing the cultural, social and political contexts from which set dramatic texts emerge. The dynamics of the seminar following will be highly interactive; scene readings, class presentation, scene studies, and performance reviews will be important.
Students are required to read proscribed plays and short critical readings in advance of class. Students should be prepared to contribute to class discussion, which is a key part of continuous assessment for this course. Mid-term assessment will be a 750-word theatre review. Students will be expected to deliver a longer essay on a set topic at the end of the course. Assessment will be weighted as follows:
Please note: Attendance in class and at the theatre is mandatory.
Week 1: Establishing Tradition
This seminar will provide an introduction to Irish theatre history and explore the relationship between theatre and the formation of the Irish Free State at the early Abbey Theatre. It will explore two key texts in the early Abbey’s performance history and discuss the way contemporary politics shaped the reception of dramatic texts throughout the twentieth century. It will conclude by showing production material from more recent productions/‘versions’ of the texts in the last 10 years.
Play Texts:
Required Secondary Reading:
Week 2: Urban Identities
This lecture will look at the emergence of a counter-tradition to the dominant thematic and dramaturgical trends in Irish theatre. It will also examine the emergence of state funding for theatre in Ireland and the resulting policies of censorship in the new Republic.
Play Texts:
Required Secondary Reading:
Week 3: Double Worlds: Theatre of the 1960s
This class will concentrate on the emergence of critical voices in Irish theatre of the 1960s. It will examine the conflict between the cultural rhetoric and reality of Irish life and how this impacted upon the construction of character in modern dramatic texts. It will also discuss how modernization during the 1960s forced a rupture that produced some of the most important tragic texts in twentieth-century Irish theatre.
Play Texts:
Required Secondary Reading:
Week 4: Alternative Voices
In this seminar the focus will be on how theatre being produced outside of Ireland by Irish Writers challenged dominant cultural concerns and modes of production. Focusing on the work of Samuel Beckett it will provide an alternative performance history to the text- centered work of early and mid-twentieth century Irish drama. Students will be given an opportunity to experiment with the performance of a short Beckett text in this class.
Play Texts:
Required Secondary Reading:
Week 5: From Partition to Peace Process: Theatre of Northern Ireland
This seminar will provide an introduction to theatre and performance as it responded to the period of conflict in Northern Ireland known as ‘The Troubles.’ It will trace a genealogy of this particular aspect of Irish history through dramatic texts. Topics for discussion include competing versions of cultural identity and the representation of violence on the stage.
Play Text:
Required Secondary Reading:
Week 6: Perspectives on Gender and Sexuality
This seminar will re-position the history of Northern Ireland through the discourse of gender politics. It will offer an alternative narrative of conflict and healing, and examine the new hierarchies of power-play in post-peace process Northern Ireland.
Play text:
Required Secondary Reading:
Week 7: Perspectives on Gender and Sexuality II
This seminar will discuss issues of gender and sexuality in Irish culture, from the early twentieth-century to the present day, using texts previously discussed throughout the course, as well as two new texts. The two set play-texts for this seminar will focus in on the late 1980s and early 1990s, when Irish gender narratives began to be questioned in the culturally and in the theatre. Students will be encouraged to use their accumulated knowledge to question the representation of gender and sexuality in earlier texts, and how the signification of the body on stage can be used to challenge cultural perceptions.
Play Texts:
Required Secondary Reading:
Week 8: Revising the Rural
This seminar will examine how young writers in the 1990s begin to deconstruct and reinvent the tropes of canonical Irish drama, specifically the rural, realist tradition of twentieth-century theatre in Ireland. It will examine how staging the supernatural creates a ruptured space in which established cultural mores can be subverted.
Play Texts:
Required Secondary Reading:
Week 9: The Irish Play on the Global Stage
This seminar will explore the global dissemination of Irish culture through theatre historically, but in particular in the 1990s. Topics for discussion will include cultural authenticity; globalization and cultural difference; culture as an economic commodity; and postmodern representational practices, particularly the influence of film on dramaturgical methods.
Play Text:
Film Text:
Required Secondary Reading:
Week 10: Urban Identities II: From Tenement to Tower Block
This seminar will focus on the emergence of new urban drama in contemporary Dublin. It will look the interplay between form and fantasy in two radically different texts: one which features extreme representations of sexuality and violence, the other which offers alternative modes of constructing communities.
Playtexts:
Required Secondary Reading:
Week 11: Storytelling as Theatre
In Enda Walsh’s plays the cultural obsession with storytelling reaches two different conclusions. This lecture will examine representations of language on the stage, through theme and form. Building on the work from the previous seminar, particular attention will be paid to the use of the monologue form and its’ performance possibilities.
Play Texts:
Required Secondary Reading:
Week 12: New modes of Practice
This class will focus on the growing practices of non-text based theatre in Ireland. It will discuss current trends of performance art, documentary theatre, and community composite practice. There will be no set primary text for this class. Discussion will be guided by audio-visual material shown in class. Students will also be required to share their observations about new trends indicated by theatre visits during the term.
Dr. Sara Keating teaches courses in contemporary Irish theatre at Trinity College Dublin, University College Dublin, and TISCH School of the Arts, NYU. She writes about theatre for The Irish Times.