Description
Book SynopsisThis book examines theatre within the context of the Northern Ireland conflict and peace process, with reference to a wide variety of plays, theatre productions and community engagements within and across communities. The author clarifies both the nature of the social and political vision of a number of major contemporary Northern Irish dramatists and the manner in which this vision is embodied in text and in performance. The book identifies and celebrates a tradition of playwrights and drama practitioners who, to this day, challenge and question all Northern Irish ideologies and propose alternative paths. The author’s analysis of a selection of Northern Irish plays, written and produced over the course of the last thirty years or so, illustrates the great variety of approaches to ideology in Northern Irish drama, while revealing a common approach to staging the conflict and the peace process, with a distinct emphasis on utopian performatives and the possibility of positive change.
Trade Review«‘Community Politics and the Peace Process in Contemporary Northern Irish Drama’ by Eva Urban can be called a fascinating, enlightening and well written study of its topic, which can prove alluring to many different groups of readers.» (Michael Heinze, www.theaterforschung.de)
«‘Community Politics and the Peace Process in Contemporary Northern Irish Drama’ represents an important contribution to the growing body of literature on the significance of theatre to the peace process of Northern Ireland. It provides much useful detail on a wide variety of the texts, performance histories and dramaturgical approaches that have challenged and contributed to cultural and political debate in the region.» (Matt Jennings, Performing Ethos 2, 2011/1)
Table of ContentsContents: Political Purpose and Dramatic Alienation: Patrick Galvin’s
We do it for Love and Tinderbox Theatre Company’s
Convictions – History Plays: Representations of the United Irishmen in
Northern Star by Stewart Parker and
Tearing the Loom by Gary Mitchell – Remodelling Mythologies: Field Day’s «Fifth Province» and Frank McGuinness’s Ulster Plays – Caricaturing Iconographies or Puppet Masters and Broken Strings in Tim Loane’s
To be Sure or how to count chickens when they come home to roost and
Caught Redhanded or
How to Prune a Whin Bush – The Politics of the Peace Process and Theatrical Imagination: Sole Purpose Productions – Foucault’s Looking Glass and Tongues of Flame:
Pentecost, After Easter, Ourselves Alone, The Wedding Community Play, Massive.
