Irish Contemporary Drama

It is a truth universally acknowledged that modern Irish drama has its roots in the national liberation movement at around 1900. Contemporary Irish drama pays tribute to the politicized theatre of William Butler Yeats, Lady Augusta Gregory, and Edward Martyn, but it also criticises the patriarchal structures and class restrictions that the nationalist movement failed to address. In this course, we will explore the dramatic work of Margaretta D'Arcy, Marina Carr, and Louise Lowe. Building on expertise in the analysis of dramatic texts (as acquired in the introductory course) we will

  • discuss the social, economic and cultural contexts of these plays;
  • discuss the form, structure and content of these plays;
  • probe into performance aspects of these dramatic scripts;
  • analyse and interpret contemporary productions of the plays discussed.
Ultimately, we want to find out whether there is a certain direction in which contemporary Irish drama is heading. Texts for close reading will be made available but students are advised (as part of the self-study element of this course) to consult anthologies of and scholarship on contemporary Irish drama such as:
Beatriz Kopschitz Bastos and Shaun Richards (eds.). Contemporary Irish Documentary Theatre. London: Bloomsbury Methuen Drama, 2020.
Eamonn Jordan and Eric Weitz (eds.). The Palgrave Handbook of Contemporary Irish Theatre and Performance. London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2018.
Graham Price. Oscar Wilde and Contemporary Irish Drama: Learning to be Oscar's Contemporary. Basingstoke, Hampshire: Palgrave Macmillan, 2018