How does Irish drama show on stage the survival of Irish people in the face of conflict and disappointment?
Irish Drama shows on stage the survival of the Irish people in the face of conflict and Disappointment from feelings of, and suppressed violence and disappointment. This is expressed through a style of heightened realism in both The Beauty Queen of Leenane (BQOL) by Martin McDonagh and Dancing at Lughnasa (DAL) by Brian Friel. In BQOL, cold-hearted violence is shown by close proximities of the characters on stage emphasising facing conflict that leads directly to the characters judgements. While In DAL, tension and violent outbursts arise from characters’ conflicting in religious and ethical frameworks due to staging, thus shows how stubborn intolerance of differing beliefs leads only to dysfunctional relationships.
Through my empirical judgement of staging of both sets, I believe it is constructed in a way that makes it look living a room on stage but at the same time includes a kitchen area, with dim lighting and olden style worn-down structure making it into a gloomy and depressing atmosphere. While additionally ADL requires a garden and yard at stage right, such while allows the audience to look in on the action through the fourth wall.
From my own heuristic view DQL has eight main characters where the play is set in a single level, small house in which they live. Through observations of workshops it can be seen that this, intimate -family feel is foundational leading to concern from behaviour, which cause sudden outbursts from these sisters especially Kate.
The Irish drama starts off with simple discussion between Chris, Agnes and Maggie about there physical appearance where during workshop the broken mirror was t...
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...to use level and pacing of Mag’s fast delivery of dialogue and Maureen’s slow and deliberate delivery to denote status and the character’ power relationship emphasising Maureen brutality and the calm delivery of her lines following the torture, through her apparent indifference about mag, show her heartlessness. That the scene comes as recurring as it already has been done once before and gives a sense of the suppressed violence of the play, and of Irish theatre in general.
From an examination of Irish drama through these two plays The Beauty Queen of Leenane and Dancing at Lughnasa shows that staging of the survival of the Irish people in the face of conflict and disappointment through feelings of facing conflict and a sense of suppressed violence contribute significantly to the intended meanings of the plays and provide a basis into understand the Irish people
Included within the anthology The Penguin Book of Irish Fiction,1[1] are the works of great Irish authors written from around three hundred years ago, until as recently as the last decade. Since one might expect to find in an anthology such as this only expressions and interpretations of Irish or European places, events or peoples, some included material could be quite surprising in its contrasting content. One such inclusion comes from the novel Black Robe,2[2] by Irish-born author Brian Moore. Leaving Ireland as a young man afforded Moore a chance to see a great deal of the world and in reflection afforded him a great diversity of setting and theme in his writings. And while his Black Robe may express little of Ireland itself, it expresses much of Moore in his exploration into evolving concepts of morality, faith, righteousness and the ever-changing human heart.
Butler, Judith. "Performative Acts and Gender Constitution: An Essay in Phenomenology and Feminist Theory." Theatre Journal 40.4 (1988): 519-31. The Johns Hopkins University Press. Web. 11 May 2011.
Johansen, Ib. ‘Shadows in a Black Mirror: Reflections on the Irish Fantastic from Sheridan Le Fanu to John Banville’. Nordic Irish Studies , Vol. 1, (2002).
This gentleman is six foot two, short black hair, black eyes, and with no real distinguishing marks. He is heterosexual, African American, and is An Atheist. His name is David, and he is walking home while wearing sweat pants with a ripped up t-shirt that was from home. Some people would consider this gentleman to be poor and have a horrible education with nothing good on his mind. However David is a part-time firefighter, with a part-time job, and also being part time college student. There is a difference between people hardcore supporting their culture or beliefs, compared to individuals who get stereotyped like David for example. In the article, “Sticks and Stones: The Irish Identity”, by Robert McLaim Wilson and published by Grand Street.
The theme of being trapped extends to many levels throughout James Joyce’s collection of short stories, Dubliners. The reader can often feel surrounded by an inescapable force that is making them read this seemingly plot-less book. Escaping this book becomes no more easier when asked to do a literary analysis. Never fear though, Dubliners transforms itself into a decently workable piece of art. In examining the Humanities Base Theme of individual and society and the Literary Base Themes of escape, journey, and entrapment in Dubliners there are quite a few examples of these themes that coincide with the readers’ feelings. Throughout Dubliners, characters feel trapped and make an attempt to escape society.
Black comedy discusses and integrates controversial and often taboo topics such as pain, loss, and grief providing a confronting and cathartic experience for the audience. Martin McDonagh’s ‘The Lieutenant of Inishmore’ is a play that humorously deals with the serious nature of the Irish struggle for independence. It juxtaposes the mundane with the extreme political violence, which is a common aspect of black comedy, presenting an issue in a new perspective. The act of pointless violence presented through characterisation, sharp dialogue and the symbol of the cat, is a strong mechanism for laughter. Similarly Neil Labute’s ‘The Shape of Things’ presents manipulation, superficiality and the nature of art in a humorous way. ‘The Shape of Things’
Theatre is an art form that has been shared across cultures for hundreds of years. This art form is extremely versatile in the types of plays, such as comedic, tragedy, and many other genres. Although theatre is thought of a form of entertainment, playwrights have seized the opportunity to inject political opinions into the play to inform the audience about present issues in their lives. Issues that playwrights have incorporated into plays have included stories that people may not be ready to hear but it encourages the audience to look inside themselves and assess their moral standing on certain issues. One subject that has been incorporated into many plays throughout the last century is women’s issues. These plays have challenged the way women
As a white, homosexual, upper class, female spectator, I am an oppressor in my whiteness and class but am oppressed through my “alternative” sexuality and through my gender. Addressing and recognizing my own personal identity as oppressor but also the oppressed helps me to examine these four plays, China Doll, Sex Kitty, Snake Oil Show, and Spell #7 in terms of representation of identity through performance. I am analyzing how these women playwrights configure identity for themselves and the audience by observing the similarities in form and content within these texts. A shared theme in these works is to move away from and/or deconstruct a universal, ideal spectator’s lens through personal experiences.
As an academic theater person and as a writer, Dolan demonstrates how to bring sentimentality into academic writing. She is full of passion and brings her own theatrical experience and memories to draw up her personal ‘‘archive of spectatorship’’ (10). It can be risky to weave the subjective and instinctive narrative with the typically objective and critical discourse of academic inquiry, but Dolan questions, ‘‘how can we use sentimentality as something positive instead of abandoning it?’’ (23). She challenges theater scholars to embrace passionate engagement with the faith, hope, and charity that she finds productive of social justice and human solidarity. Therefore, after explaining the main concepts, Dolan describes some specific cases that support the "utopian performatives," including the solo performances of feminist artists Holly Hughes, Deb Margolin, and Peggy Shaw; multicharacter solo performances by Lily Tomlin, Danny Hoch, and Anna Deavere Smith; the slam poetry event Def Poetry Jam; The Laramie Project; Blanket, a performance by postmodern choreographer Ann Carlson; Metamorphoses by Mary Zimmerman; and Deborah Warner 's production of Medea starring Fiona Shaw. These cases demonstrate how live performance and its utopic sentiment can inspire and motivate people to change the sociality, because performance provides a forum for being human together towards “feelings of possibility, hope, and political agency (p.59),” and commonality in particular
Guthrie (1995), a renowned personality in the field of theater arts in Europe, wrote in an article that, whatever the author writes as a script, should be enacted by the actor and by that the context of the piece made by the writer will be passed through the audience. Therefore, it is the audience’s responsibility to absorb the message aimed to propagate by the play; and it is seen through their reactions—may be a sentiment of satisfaction or dissatisfaction.
The Donnelly twins are very important characters in Brian Friel’s Translations. They not only symbolize many kinds of people in Ireland, but they also move the story along and present us with the major conflict that occurs. The Donnelly twins embody all the actions that the Irish made in order to regain their freedom, and show us the major tensions that were occurring in Ireland during the time of this play’s performance.
Irish short stories are something that will get under their readers, and stay with them long after they finished reading it. The reader is left with a sense of wonder of what they just read, long after finishing the story. These stories can be confusing, bizarre, frustrating, but at the same time they’re also fun, suspenseful and profound. They also offer an insight into the Irish culture and the struggles they went through in the twentieth century.
Behan, Brendan. The Quare Fellow. Modern Irish Drama. Ed. John P. Harrington. New York: W.W. Norton & Co, Inc, 1991. 255-310.
Cathleen Ni Houlihan by W. B. Yeats and Lady Gregory and The Rising of the Moon by Lady Gregory demonstrate the impending and never ceasing restlessness of the Irish people and the desire to rebel against British rule. In turn, the playwrights incorporate spirit or spirit-like characters that represent the oppression that the Irish experienced. By the end, the spirit has incited a character to help or follow them in the rebellion. Those who aid the cause of the rebellion are often not supported by anyone else but the spirit. If I were to stage these plays on a double bill of one-acts, I would emphasize the oppression of the characters and the impending rebellion with saturated light that envelopes the scene, setting that represents their vulnerability,
When Gabriel Conroy delivers his wordy yet incredibly moving speech to the gaggle of Dubliners gathered together for the Holidays, he worries, possibly even fears, death. He talks of the future, making it sound cold and inhospitable. He lays compliments on his aunts one after the other about their “ perennial youth’ (pg.166) and their kid ways. Gabriel addresses both the future and the present using a compare and contrast method, making one seem comforting and homey, the other dark and unknown. This comparison adds the aspect of death to Gabriel’s speech because of impermanence of his Aunt Julia and Aunt Kate; the impermanence of good old Irish hospitality, warmth and love.