Overview

In A Critical History of Modern Irish Drama 1891-1980 (1984), the late Professor D.E.S. Maxwell states that the drama of J.M. Synge has 'an effect of language [to] disturb the apparent solidity of his stage's material accessories, to fantasticate and mythologise character into action.' In a sense, this is what all great drama does; through the use of the fantastic and the mythic, it disturbs the 'solidity' of the world as we know it. The works presented and discussed in this volume, show how the material of the everyday is transformed by the dreams of theatre makers, as we journey forth into the 21st Century. In writings by Marina Carr, Seamus Heaney, Olwen Fou r, Terry Eagleton, Paul Murphy, Aoife Monks, Melissa Sihra, Conall Morrison, Mark Phelan, Eamonn Jordan, Brian Singleton, Lynne Parker, Rhona Trench, Stephen Regan, David Johnston and Donal O'Kelly we see examples of creative writing which engage critically with a world that is constantly changing, and examples of critical writing which engage creatively with theatre that is constantly evolving.
This book is also a celebration of the vitality, originality and richness of theatre practice and scholarship on the island today. In Olwen Fou r 's 1999 production Angel/Babel, the millennial cyborg-figure says: 'The dreaming body lies at the core of everything and the metaphor of the dark is much richer and stranger than what is being talked about.' Theatre, indeed all art, is impossible without the dreaming body, whether it is the body of the performer, the playwright, the designer, the scholar or the director. Such creative impulses are at the heart of what this book seeks to explore. Theatre practice and scholarship in Ireland, North and South, has never been more vibrant and energised. This collection of writings offers a taste of the dreams and imaginings which have materialised on the island over the last forty years. The sixteenth volume in the Ulster Editions & Monographs Series.

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