Overview

Sold as a multi-volume set – the individual volumes are also available for purchase. This two-volume edited collection illuminates the valuable counter-canon of Irish women’s playwriting with forty-two essays written by leading and emerging Irish theatre scholars and practitioners. Covering three hundred years of Irish theatre history from 1716 to 2016, it is the most comprehensive study of plays written by Irish women to date. These short essays provide both a valuable introduction and innovative analysis of key playtexts, bringing renewed attention to scripts and writers that continue to be under-represented in theatre criticism and performance. Volume One covers plays by Irish women playwrights written between 1716 to 1992, and seeks to address and redress the historic absence of Irish female playwrights in theatre histories. Highlighting the work of nine women playwrights from the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, as well as thirteen of the twentieth century’s key writers, the chapters in this volume explore such varied themes as the impact of space and place on identity, women’s strategic use of genre, and theatrical responses to shifts in Irish politics and culture. Volume Two contains chapters focused on plays by sixteen Irish women playwrights produced between 1992 and 2016, highlighting the explosion of new work by contemporary writers. The plays in this volume explore women’s experiences at the intersections of class, sexuality, disability, and ethnicity, pushing at the boundaries of how we define not only Irish theatre, but Irish identity more broadly. CONTRIBUTORS: Conrad Brunström, David Clare, Thomas Conway, Marguérite Corporaal, Mark Fitzgerald, Shirley-Anne Godfrey, Úna Kealy, Sonja Lawrenson, Cathy Leeney, Marc Mac Lochlainn, Kate McCarthy, Fiona McDonagh, Deirdre McFeely, Megan W. Minogue, Ciara Moloney, Justine Nakase, Patricia O'Beirne, Kevin O'Connor, Ciara O'Dowd, Clíona Ó Gallchoir, Anna Pilz, Emilie Pine, Ruud van den Beuken, Feargal Whelan, Nelson Barre, Mary Burke, Shonagh Hill, Mária Kurdi, José Lanters, Dorothy Morrissey, Brian Ó Conchubhair, Brenda O'Connell, Shane O'Neill, Graham Price, Siobhán Purcell, Carole Quigley, Sarah Jane Scaife, Melissa Sihra, Clare Wallace

Full Product Details

Author:   David Clare ,  Fiona McDonagh ,  Justine Nakase
Publisher:   Liverpool University Press
Imprint:   Liverpool University Press
ISBN:  

9781802073713

ISBN 10:   180207371
Pages:   560
Publication Date:   01 March 2024
Audience:   General/trade ,  College/higher education ,  Professional and scholarly ,  General ,  Tertiary & Higher Education
Format:   Paperback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   In Print  
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Table of Contents

Volume 1 IntroductionDavid Clare, Fiona McDonagh & Justine Nakase “There’s no Place like old England”: Space and Identity in Mary Davys’s The Northern Heiress; Or, the Humours of York (1716) Marguérite Corporaal “Some tender scenes demand the melting tear”: Frances Sheridan’s The Discovery (1763) and the Vindication of “Sentimental Comedy” Conrad Brunström Irish Wit on the London Stage: Elizabeth Griffith’s The Platonic Wife (1765) Clíona Ó Gallchoir Deceptive Disabilities in Maria Edgeworth’s The Double Disguise (1786): Irish Patriotism, Consumption, and the Martial Male Body Sonja Lawrenson Reimagining Maria Edgeworth’s The Knapsack (1801) for a Contemporary Young Audience Fiona McDonagh & Marc Mac Lochlainn Mary Balfour’s Kathleen O’Neil (1814): An Expression or Betrayal of Her Ulster Scots Background? David Clare Justice and the “Triple Goddess” Archetypes in Anna Maria Hall’s Mabel’s Curse (1837) Ciara Moloney Operas without a Hero: A Comic Trilogy (1876–1879) by Elena Norton and Mary HeyneMark Fitzgerald “Petticoats!—petticoats! petticoats!”: Sartorial Economics in Clotilde Graves’s A Mother of Three (1896) Justine Nakase From Gort to Antarctica: Lady Gregory’s Audiences and The Rising of the Moon (1903) Anna Pilz Lady Gregory’s Grania (1912): Myth and Mythology Shirley-Anne Godfrey “You have let the play go to pieces”: Geraldine Cummins and Susanne R. Day’s Fox and Geese (1917) and the Hegemony of the Early Abbey Theatre Thomas Conway “Something left over from the Eighteenth Century, undergoing a slow process of decay”: The Impotence of the Ascendancy in Mary Manning’s Youth’s the Season–? (1931) Ruud van den Beuken Shape Shifting the Silence: An Analysis of Talk Real Fine, Just Like a Lady (2017) by Amanda Coogan in Collaboration with Dublin Theatre of the Deaf, an Appropriation of Teresa Deevy’s The King of Spain’s Daughter (1935) Úna Kealy & Kate McCarthy The Premiere Staging of Mount Prospect (1940) by Elizabeth Connor (the Pen Name of Una Troy) at the Abbey Theatre Ciara O’Dowd Corruption and Socio-Political Tensions in Christine Longford’s Tankardstown (1948) Kevin O’Connor Social Class, Space, and Containment in 1950s Ireland: Maura Laverty’s “Dublin Trilogy” (1951–1952) Cathy Leeney & Deirdre McFeely Máiréad Ní Ghráda’s An Triail/On Trial (1964): Hiding Hypocrisy in Plain Sight Feargal Whelan Christina Reid: Acts of Memory in Tea in a China Cup (1983), The Belle of the Belfast City (1989), and My Name, Shall I Tell You My Name (1989) Emilie Pine Anne Devlin: Depicting a Gendered Journey: Men and Women on The Long March (1984) Megan W. Minogue A Partial Eclipse: The Role of the Religious in Patricia Burke Brogan’s Eclipsed (1988 / 1992) Patricia O’Beirne Coda – What the Woman Sees: Waking Up to Feminist Aesthetics Cathy Leeney Volume 2 Introduction David Clare, Fiona McDonagh & Justine Nakase Marie Jones’s Don’t Look Down (1992): Representations of Disability for Young Audiences Fiona McDonagh Lesbianism and Legibility in Emma Donoghue’s I Know My Own Heart (1993) Shonagh Hill Learning to Play Poker: The Re-vision of Irish Women’s Agency in Gina Moxley’s Danti-Dan (1995) Nelson Barre Directing Marina Carr’s By the Bog of Cats… (1998) in China Sarah Jane Scaife Ursula Rani Sarma’s Blue (2000) and Social Transformation in Ireland Shane O’Neill Challenging “Good Taste”: Roslaeen McDonagh’s The Baby Doll Project (2003) and the Creation of a “Traveller Canon” Mary Burke Disordered States and Affective Economies in Stella Feehily’s O Go My Man (2006) Clare Wallace Living in a Rape Culture: Gang Rape and “Toxic Masculinity” in Abbie Spallen’s Pumpgirl (2006) Carole Quigley Marina Carr’s Woman and Scarecrow (2006) and the Ars Moriendi José Lanters Lizzie Nunnery’s Intemperance (2007) and Compromised Mental Health among the Irish in Britain David Clare Memory, History, and Forgetting in Anne Devlin’s The Forgotten (2009) Graham Price “We are here, we were here all along”: Queer Invisibility and Performing Age in Amy Conroy’s I (Heart) Alice (Heart) I (2010) Brenda O’Connell Motherhood and the Search for Recognition in Deirdre Kinahan’s Moment (2011) Dorothy Morrissey “Unrealing the Real”: Disability and Darwinism in Lynda Radley’s Futureproof (2011) Siobhán Purcell Family Dysfunction and Character Dynamics: Nancy Harris’s Our New Girl (2012) in Conversation with Marina Carr’s Portia Coughlin (1996) and Martin Crimp’s The Country (2000) Mária Kurdi Unconscious Casting: Stacey Gregg’s Shibboleth (2015), Walls, and the (En)Gendering of Violence Justine Nakase Nevertheless, She Persisted: Celia de Fréine’s Luíse (2016) Brian Ó Conchubhair Coda – Spinning Gold: Threads of Augusta Gregory and Marina Carr Melissa Sihra

Reviews

‘The Golden Thread is an ambitious, richly textured and multifaceted research piece that opens up the field of Irish theatre studies in most fruitful ways. It offers a robust counteracting to the under-representation of Irish women playwrights in the canon and is a strong incentive for producers to revive their work… a most valuable book for anyone interested in Irish studies, in Irish theatre studies and also for anyone interested in an alternative history of Irish theatre.’ Hélène Lecossois, Études irlandaises ‘In a word, The Golden Thread: Irish Women Playwrights, 1716–2016... is superb. This two-volume collection showcases writers familiar and less familiar, offers valuable context and incisive textual readings, attends to performance as well as stagecraft, and ranges among historical periods and critical approaches.’ Prof. Paige Reynolds, English Studies ‘This is one of those indispensable works that will influence the future of performance studies and feminist criticism. The number and variety of voices on display, the effort in the reconstruction of the canon by adding women playwrights who had been erased in the past, and the declared ambition to draw attention to and create the conditions for revivals and publications of plays created by contemporary women playwrights make this extensive compilation more than recommendable... All in all, a very enjoyable edition, which makes for a rewarding read and provides essential information.’ María Gaviña-Costero, Estudios Irlandeses ‘Spanning from the eighteenth-century to the present day, The Golden Thread brings together the work of leading scholars in Irish theatre and women’s writing with that of theatre practitioners to recover the often-hidden contributions of women playwrights. The collection develops a counter-canon of Irish playwrights that examines issues of class, sexuality, and disability.’ Colleen English, The New Books Network

Author Information

David Clare is Lecturer in Drama and Theatre Studies at Mary Immaculate College, University of Limerick. Fiona McDonagh is Lecturer in Drama and Theatre Studies at Mary Immaculate College, University of Limerick. Justine Nakase is Adjunct Lecturer at Portland State University.

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