Menace and Play

Dissipating and Emerging Dramaturgies in Irish Theatre in the 1990s

Abstract

Irish Drama has changed radically over the last century, and especially during the last decade of the twentieth century. Globally, the state of Irish theatre has never seemed healthier. The vibrancy and recent accomplishments, in terms of box office and awards, of Martin McDonagh, Conor McPherson, Frank McGuinness, Marina Carr, Marie Jones, and of course Brian Friel bear this out. Just as clearly, there has been a dissolution of a dramatic practice that goes back to J.M. Synge and Sean O'Casey, that consolidated in the late 1950s and early 60s, and that later matured and modified, while retaining reasonably consistent artistic aspirations and fundamentals. I map this transition by portraying what seems to me to be shared dramaturgical conventions of an older male generation and the demise or depreciation of those practices (there is still residual evidence of it) in a younger one. I will argue that it is a shift from a post-colonial to a postmodern consciousness that accounts for much of the changes. To make my case, I will work primarily with Brian Friel, Tom Murphy and Frank McGuinness and offset them against Sebastian Barry, Conor McPherson, Martin McDonagh and Mark O'Rowe.