Overview

In Synge and the Making of Modern Irish Drama, Anthony Roche draws on twenty-five years of engagement with Synge’s plays to present ten chapters on the unfolding of a double narrative. The first argues the extent and ways in which John Millington Synge self-consciously undertook to become the founding playwright of an Irish national theatre. Synge’s rapid development as a playwright is examined in relation to Yeats and Joyce. His love affair with Abbey Theatre actress Máire O’Neill (Molly Allgood) is treated in depth, both in terms of their troubled life together and the vibrant roles he wrote for her. The book’s second narrative moves from Synge’s historical time to the present day, to consider what subsequent Irish playwrights have made of his dramatic legacy. Samuel Beckett, asked by his biographer to name the dramatists whose plays had meant the most to him, uttered only the name of Synge in reply. This study also traces in illuminating detail the impact of Synge’s revolutionary plays on a range of contemporary playwrights: Brian Friel, Stewart Parker, Marina Carr and Martin McDonagh, to examine how this influence and recent productions of Synge’s work have enabled him to remain our contemporary. It will be of considerable interest to students of Irish drama both in Ireland and worldwide.

Full Product Details

Author:   Anthony Roche
Publisher:   Peter Lang International Academic Publishers
Imprint:   Peter Lang International Academic Publishers
Edition:   New edition
Volume:   556
Weight:   0.453kg
ISBN:  

9781788748230

ISBN 10:   1788748239
Pages:   308
Publication Date:   10 October 2019
Audience:   Professional and scholarly ,  Professional & Vocational
Format:   Paperback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   Out of stock  
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Table of Contents

CONTENTS Dedication vii Acknowledgements x Abbreviations xii Introduction 1 1 | J.M. Synge: Christianity versus Paganism 11 2 | Synge and Germany: Drama as Translation 45 3 | Yeats, Synge and an Emerging Irish Drama 67 4 | Joyce, Synge and the Irish Theatre Movement 93 5 | Ghosts in Irish Drama: Synge’s Riders to the Sea, Yeats’s The Only Jealousy of Emer and Stewart Parker’s Pentecost 135 6 | Woman on the Threshold: Synge’s The Shadow of the Glen, Teresa Deevy’s Katie Roche and Marina Carr’s The Mai 161 7 | Marginal Zones and Liminality: Synge’s The Well of the Saints and Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot 181 8 | Postmodern Playboy: Synge in the Twenty-First Century 199 9 | J.M. Synge and Molly Allgood: The Woman and the Tramp 231 10 | Brian Friel and Synge: Towards a Theatrical Language 245 Conclusion 263 Select Bibliography 271 Index 281

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Author Information

ANTHONY ROCHE is an Associate Professor in the School of English, Drama and Film at University College Dublin. He is the author of the pioneering Contemporary Irish Drama (Second Edition, 2009) and the acclaimed Brian Friel: Theatre and Politics (2011). He was the director of the Synge Summer School in Rathdrum, Co. Wicklow, from 2005 to 2007.

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