Irish Theatre in the Twenty-First Century

Abstract

Abstract Irish Theatre in the Twenty-First Century is the first in-depth study of the subject. It analyses the ways in which theatre in Ireland has developed since the 1990s with emerging playwrights Martin McDonagh, Conor McPherson, and Enda Walsh. Companies such as Blue Raincoat, the Corn Exchange, and Pan Pan pioneered an avant-garde dramaturgy. This led to new styles of production of classic Irish works, including the plays of Synge, mounted by Druid. There was a re-imagining of past Irish history in the work of Rough Magic and ANU; plays by Owen McCafferty, Stacey Gregg, and David Ireland, dramatized the legacy of the Troubles; and adaptations of Greek tragedy by Marina Carr and others reflecting the conditions of modern Ireland. From 2015 the movement #WakingTheFeminists led to a sharpened awareness of gender. While male playwrights showed a toxic masculinity on the stage, a generation of female dramatists including Carr, Gregg, and Nancy Harris gave voice to the long suppressed experiences of women. For three separate periods, 2006, 2016, and 2020–2, the author served as one of the judges for the Irish Times Irish Theatre Awards, attending all new productions across the island of Ireland. This allowed him to provide the overviews of the ‘state of play’ of Irish theatre in each of those times which punctuate the book. Drawing also on interviews with Ireland’s leading theatre makers, Grene provides readers with a close-up understanding of Irish theatre in a period when Ireland became for the first time a fully modernized, secular, and multi-ethnic society.