Description
Book SynopsisThis is the first full-length study to focus on the staging of Samuel Beckett's drama in Ireland and Northern Ireland. Beckett's relationship with his native land was a complex one, but the importance of his drama as a creative force both historically and in contemporary practice in Ireland and Northern Ireland cannot be underestimated. Drawing on previously unpublished archival materials and re-examining familiar narratives, this volume traces the history of Beckett's drama at Dublin's Abbey and Gate Theatres as well as bringing to light unexamined and little-known productions such as those performed in the Irish language, Druid Theatre Company's productions, and those of Dublin's Focus Theatre. Leading scholars in Beckett studies and in Irish drama, including Anna McMullan and Anthony Roche, and renowned interpreters of Beckett's dramatic work such as Barry McGovern, explore Beckett's drama within the context of Irish creative theatrical practice and heritage, and analyse its legac
Trade ReviewAn important intervention in the field of studies on the Irish theater of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries and in that of Beckettian studies * La Revue des Lettres Modernes (Bloomsbury Translation) *
Table of ContentsList of Illustrations Notes on Contributors Acknowledgements Foreword: Christopher Murray Introduction: Trish McTighe Part 1 Theatre Histories 1 Beckett at the Abbey 1967–1990: Broadening the Canon
Anthony Roche 2 Practice in Focus: ‘That’s how it was and them were the days’
Barry McGovern 3 The Gate Theatre’s Beckett Festivals: Tensions between the Local and the Global
David Clare 4 Practice in Focus: Clarity in Confusion – the Adaptability and Durability of Beckett in Belfast
David Grant 5 Beckett out of Focus: Happy Days and Waiting for Godot at Dublin’s Focus Theatre
Siobhán O’Gorman Part 2 Cultural Contexts 6 ‘Idle Youth Waiting for Godot’: Destitution in Waiting for Godot in Relation to the Irish Performance Tradition
Paul Murphy 7 Staging Beckett in Ireland: Scenographic Remains
Anna McMullan 8 ‘In Bantu or Erse’: Staging Beckett in Irish
Feargal Whelan 9 The Sonic Geography of Druid’s Waiting for Godot
Trish McTighe Part 3 Expanding the Frame 10 Practice in Focus: Beckett in the City
Sarah Jane Scaife 11Beckett and the Non-Place in Irish Performance
Brian Singleton 12 ‘The Neatness of Identifications’: Transgressing Beckett’s Genres in Ireland and Northern Ireland, 2000–2015
Nicholas E. Johnson Notes Bibliography Index
