IASIL 2005 Charles University, Prague
Ireland – A Global Village?
25-28 July 2005

From Partitioned to Postmodern Ireland: Irish Theatre (and the Global Stage)

This panel will examine several key productions staged by the Ulster Literary Theatre, the Belfast Repertory Company and the Abbey and Lyric theatres over the past century. Focusing on the post-partition, inter-war period, the first two papers examine the impact of global political and economic forces on Irish theatre and society, such as the Free State’s membership of the League of Nations (1923) and the Wall Street Crash (1929) and explore how the work of Sean O’Casey and Thomas Carnduff deconstruct the dominant ideologies of the southern and northern states. The final paper will extend this thematic trajectory by connecting the cultural politics of nationalism and globalisation during the Irish Revival and the Celtic Tiger era in the plays of Gerald McNamara and Marie Jones.

Chair: Anna McMullan (Trinity College Dublin)

Panellists:
Elizabeth Mannion (Trinity College Dublin)
'Different C/Kathleens'

Paul Devlin (University of Ulster)
'A Lesson in Ordinary Life': the Intentional Ethics and Ethical Reception of Thomas Carnduff’s Workers.

Mark Phelan (Queen’s University of Belfast)
Performing ‘Authentic’ Ireland: (Dis)connecting the Cultural Politics of the Irish Revival and the Celtic Tiger on the Irish Stage.