Ireland on Stage

ECTS allocation:                   10
Teaching Faculty:                  Prof Nicholas Grene
Contact:                                 1 x 2 hours/week in Michaelmas term

W.B. Yeats, Lady Gregory and Edward Martyn, in their 1897 manifesto for the Irish Literary Theatre, stated that their aim was ‘to bring upon the stage the deeper thoughts and emotions of Ireland'. In the national theatre movement that evolved subsequently and in the century since, that aim has been pursued more or less self-consciously in a wide variety of forms. The aim of this option course, taught through seminars and assessed by submitted essay, is to explore some of the major plays and playwrights who have sought to represent Ireland on stage in the modern period.

1. Introductory lecture: W.B. Yeats, The Countess Cathleen
2. W.B. Yeats and Lady Gregory, Cathleen ni Houlihan, W.B. Yeats, On Baile's Strand
3. J.M. Synge, Riders to the Sea, The Aran Islands
4. J.M. Synge, The Shadow of the Glen, The Well of the Saints
5. Sean O'Casey, The Shadow of a Gunman , Juno and the Paycock
6. Sean O'Casey, The Plough and the Stars, Denis Johnston, The Moon in the Yellow River
7. Reading Week
8. Brendan Behan, The Quare Fellow, The Hostage
9. Brian Friel, Philadelphia Here I Come!, Dancing at Lughnasa
10. Tom Murphy, Conversations on a Homecoming, Bailegangaire
11. Frank McGuinness, Observe the Sons of Ulster Marching Towards the Somme, Sebastian Barry, The Steward of Christendom
12. Martin McDonagh, The Beauty Queen of Leenane, Conor McPherson, The Weir

Primary texts

Sebastian Barry, The Steward of Christendom (London: Methuen, 1997)
Brendan Behan, Complete Plays ( London: Methuen, 2001)
Brian Friel, Philadelphia Here I Come! (London: Faber, 1975), Dancing at Lughnasa (London: Faber, 1990)
Denis Johnston, Selected Plays (Washington: Catholic University of America Press, 1983)
Martin McDonagh, The Beauty Queen of Leenane (London: Methuen, 1996)
Conor McPherson, The Weir ( London : Nick Hern, 2001)
Frank McGuinness, Observe the Sons of Ulster Marching Towards the Somme (London: Faber, 1986)
Tom Murphy, Plays: 2 (London: Methuen, 1993)
Sean O'Casey, Three Dublin Plays (London: Faber, 1998)
J.M. Synge, The Playboy of the Western World and other plays, ed. Ann Saddlemyer ( Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008)
W.B. Yeats, Selected Plays, ed. Richard Allen Cave (London: Penguin, 1997 )

Secondary Reading

Adrian Frazier, Behind the Scenes (Berkeley, Los Angeles, London: University of California Press, 1990)
Nicholas Grene, The Politics of Irish Drama (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999)
Christopher Morash, A History of Irish Theatre 1601-2000 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001
Christopher Murray, Twentieth-century Irish Drama (Manchester and New York: Manchester University Press, 1997)
Lionel Pilkington, Theatre and the State in Twentieth-century Ireland (London: Routledge, 2001)
Shaun Richards (ed), Cambridge Companion to Twentieth-century Irish Drama (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004)

A fuller bibliography will be supplied at the start of the course.