Drama Theatre and Performance (Scholarly Articles): Recent submissions
Now showing items 21-40 of 49
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Only an Apple by Tom MacIntyre, Peacock Theatre
(Irish Theatre Magazine, 2009)You have to wonder why Irish dramatists keep writing plays about politicians. In 1969, Brian Friel’s The Mundy Scheme brilliantly satirised the political life of that period, while anticipating much that would follow. Yet ... -
The theatre of Marie Jones: telling stories from the ground up
(Taylor & Francis, 2016-11-11)It’s sometimes asserted that Irish women writers are doubly marginalised: first by their nationality and then by their gender. If that statement is true, we might add to it that Marie Jones has been marginalised a third ... -
Once: the musical by Enda Walsh, Gaiety Theatre
(Irish Theatre Magazine, 2013)As we enter the Gaiety, we discover that Once has already begun: the cast are gathered in what looks like an ordinary pub where a session is underway. They play music for about twenty minutes while members of the audience ... -
An enemy of the people, Ibsen adapted by Arthur Miller, Gate Theatre
(Irish Theatre Magazine, 2013)Ibsen’s 1882 An Enemy of the People is sometimes described as a problem play, in that it dramatises a compelling debate between two brothers about the nature of morality and individual responsibility. But that term might ... -
Tackling a live subject: the Hinterland controversy
(Irish Theatre Magazine, 2002)The ramifications of the controversy over Sebastian Barry’s latest play echo well beyond the "Hinterland", argues Patrick Lonergan. What, exactly, is so bad about Hinterland? Using aspects of the career of Charles ... -
Krapp's Last Tape by Samuel Beckett, Gate Theatre
(Irish Theatre Magazine, 2010)It took Samuel Beckett about three weeks to write Krapp’s Last Tape. During that time, the play went through seven distinct stages which, according to the scholarship, involved a gradual stripping away of sentimentality: ... -
Dancing at Lughnasa by Brian Friel, Gate Theatre
(Irish Theatre Magazine, 2004)Dancing at Lughnasa premiered at the Abbey in 1990, and was produced in Dublin during five of the ten subsequent years – using the same director and designer every time. Our understanding of the play has therefore been ... -
HURL by Charlie O’Neill, Barrabas Theatre Company, Black Box Theatre, Galway
(2003)Minutes into Hurl, Charlie O’Neil’s play about a multi-ethnic hurling team, a ripple of discomfort sweeps through the audience. On stage, a man and woman have entered the house of an alcoholic ex-priest; understandably, ... -
Faith Healer by Brian Friel, Gate Theatre
(Irish Theatre Magazine, 2010)During the last decade, Owen Roe has emerged as one of Ireland’s very best actors – yet, until now, he’s rarely filled a major leading role. His performance as the Irishman in Ben Barnes’s 2001 Gigli Concert was astonishing ... -
Shakespeare and the Irish Writer edited by Janet Clare and Stephen O Neill
(Irish Theatre Magazine, 2010)Shakespeare, wrote Ben Jonson, was both the “soul of the age” and “for all time”. His work, that is, encapsulated the life of his society – but it also transcended space and time, acquiring universal importance. That ... -
The Beauty Queen of Leenane by Martin McDonagh, Young Vic Theatre
(Irish Theatre Magazine, 2010)When Martin McDonagh’s Leenane plays first appeared in Ireland, they seemed exciting for many reasons: their delinquent humour, their rootedness in (but distance from) the Irish dramatic tradition, their wilfully ... -
Theatre stuff: critical essays on contemporary Irish theatre edited by Eamonn Jordan (Dublin: Carysfort Press, 2000)
(2003)Optimism about contemporary Irish drama seems to have diminished recently. At the 2001 Irish Times/ESB Theatre Awards, a member of the judging panel lamented the scarcity of new Irish plays, stating that he wanted to ... -
The Field by John B. Keane, Olympia Theatre
(Irish Theatre Magazine, 2011)Irish attitudes towards John B. Keane have changed a lot during the last ten years – due largely to Garry Hynes’ production of four of his plays during that period. Keane has always been popular, but he was also seen by ... -
The Gigli Concert by Tom Murphy, Druid Theatre
(Irish Theatre Magazine, 2009-09)One of the clichés of Irish theatre historiography is that drama in this country is excessively verbal – that our dramatists write for the voice, but not for the body. But if you actually go to the theatre here, it soon ... -
Queer notions: new plays and performances from Ireland by Fintan Walsh
(Irish Theatre Magazine, 2011-01-30)Fintan Walsh’s new anthology begins with a line that seems in danger of subverting the rest of the book. “There is strength in numbers, so they say,” writes Frank McGuinness in his foreword – before adding “I’ve never ... -
The Blind Fiddler by Marie Jones, Lyric Theatre, Belfast
(Irish Theatre Magazine, 2003-06-12)Perhaps unfairly, Marie Jones remains more noted for commercial rather than critical success. The Blind Fiddler – an exciting fusion of melodrama, traditional music, and great storytelling – looks likely to be as successful ... -
Tilsonburg by Malachy McKenna, Focus Theatre/Irish Touring Company, Town Hall Theatre and Shiver by Declan Hughes, Rough Magic, Project Arts Centre, Dublin
(Irish Theatre Magazine, 2003)Critics have been declaring Irish playwrighting to be in a state of crisis for most of the last 100 years but, even so, it’s hard not to feel glum about the present state of our writing for the stage. The latest plays from ... -
Measure for Measure by William Shakespeare, Rattlebag Theatre Company, Civic Theatre Tallaght and Henry IV – Part One by William Shakespeare, Peacock Theatre
(Irish Theatre Magazine, 2003)Almost every European country that gained independence after the First World War had one thing in common: with only one exception, they all tried to stimulate the growth of a national literature by commissioning translations ... -
The Call by Tara Maria Lovett, Peri-Talking at The Crypt
(Irish Theatre Magazine, 2002)Arriving to watch Tara Maria Lovett’s The Call, we realise that we have entered a human body. The room pulses with red lighting as we take our seats around a ribcage, a pile of stones at its centre representing a heart. ... -
For the pleasure of seeing her again by Michel Tremblay, translated by Linda Gaboriau, Peacock Theatre
(Irish Theatre Magazine, 2002)As Michel Tremblay’s play begins, we are told that we are not about to see a Three Sisters or a Hamlet. Instead, we are asked to witness the writer’s remembrance of Nana, his mother, whom he is summoning to the stage "for ...