Fifty Key Irish Plays

Shaun Richards

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2022
• Print ISBN: 9781032066493
• eBook ISBN: 9781000631272
• Topic: Media & Performing Arts
• Subtopic: English Literary Criticism

Fifty Key Irish Plays charts the progression of modern Irish drama from Dion Boucicault's entry on to the global stage of the Irish diaspora to the contemporary dramas created by the experiences of the New Irish.

Each chapter provides a brief plot outline along with informed analysis and, alert to the cultural and critical context of each play, an account of the key roles that they played in the developing story of Irish drama. While the core of the collection is based on the critical canon, including work by J. M. Synge, Lady Gregory, Teresa Deevy, and Brian Friel, plays such as Tom Mac Intyre's The Great Hunger and ANU Productions' Laundry, which illuminate routes away from the mainstream, are also included. With a focus on the development of form as well as theme, the collection guides the reader to an informed overview of Irish theatre via succinct and insightful essays by an international team of academics.

This invaluable collection will be of particular interest to undergraduate students of theatre and performance studies and to lay readers looking to expand their appreciation of Irish drama.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Endorsements Page
• Half-Title Page
• Series Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication
• Contents
• Alphabetical list of contents
• Notes on contributors
• Introduction
• Fifty Key Irish Plays
• The Shaughraun (1874) by Dion Boucicault
• The Importance of Being Earnest (1895) by Oscar Wilde
• The Last Feast of the Fianna (1900) by Alice Milligan
• Kathleen ni Houlihan (1902) by Lady Augusta Gregory and W. B. Yeats
• John Bull’s Other Island (1904) by Bernard Shaw
• The Gaol Gate (1906) by Lady Augusta Gregory
• The Playboy of the Western World (1907) by J. M. Synge
• Harvest (1910) by Lennox Robinson
• At the Hawk’s Well (1916) by W. B. Yeats
• The Plough and the Stars (1926) by Sean O’Casey
• The Old Lady Says “No!” (1929) by Denis Johnston
• Youth’s the Season–? (1931) by Mary Manning
• Katie Roche (1936) by Teresa Deevy
• Purgatory (1938) by W. B. Yeats
• An Apple a Day (1942) by Elizabeth Connor (Una Troy)
• Tolka Row (1951) by Maura Laverty
• Home is the Hero (1952) by Walter Macken
• The Wood of the Whispering (1953) by M. J. Molloy
• Waiting for Godot (1953) by Samuel Beckett
• The Hostage (1958) by Brendan Behan
• Over the Bridge (1960) by Sam Thompson
• Stephen D. (1962) by Hugh Leonard
• The Field (1965) by John B. Keane
• Famine (1968) by Tom Murphy
• Translations (1980) by Brian Friel
• The Great Hunger (1983) by Tom Mac Intyre
• Tea in a China Cup (1983) by Christina Reid
• Northern Star (1984) by Stewart Parker
• Bailegangaire (1985) by Tom Murphy
• Observe the Sons of Ulster Marching Towards the Somme (1985) by Frank McGuinness
• Ourselves Alone (1985) by Anne Devlin
• Double Cross (1986) by Thomas Kilroy
• A Handful of Stars (1988) by Billy Roche
• The Lament for Arthur Cleary (1989) by Dermot Bolger
• Dancing at Lughnasa (1990) by Brian Friel
• Digging for Fire (1991) by Declan Hughes
• Eclipsed (1992) by Patricia Burke Brogan
• The Steward of Christendom (1995) by Sebastian Barry
• The Beauty Queen of Leenane (1996) by Martin McDonagh
• The Weir (1997) by Conor McPherson
• By the Bog of Cats (1998) by Marina Carr
• The Walworth Farce (2006) by Enda Walsh
• Terminus (2007) by Mark O’Rowe
• The Playboy of the Western World (2007) by Bisi Adigun and Roddy Doyle
• I ♥ Alice ♥ I (2010) by Amy Conroy
• No Escape (2010) by Mary Raftery
• Laundry (2011) by ANU Productions
• Quietly (2012) by Owen McCafferty
• Broken Promise Land (2013) by Mirjana Rendulic
• Spinning (2014) by Deirdre Kinahan
• Index