Theatre and Archival Memory : Irish Drama and Marginalised Histories 1951-1977

"Theatre and Archival Memory analyses a pivotal but under-explored period in Irish theatre history. Using a staggering array of archival sources - many of which have never before been written about - this book will have a transformative impact on Irish theatre history and historiography." --Professor Patrick Lonergan, MRIA. Professor of Drama and Theatre Studies, NUI Galway. "Breathtaking in its precision and originality, Barry Houlihan's monograph offers a dynamic engagement with the archive which expands the canon of Modern Irish Drama as we know it. Productions and key figures are brought to glorious life through Houlihan's unrivalled range of source materials, interviews, artefacts and ephemera which illuminate previously unknown histories of gender, class and social conditions in Twentieth Century Irish Theatre." --Melissa Sihra, Head of Drama and Associate Professor, Trinity College Dublin. This book presents new insights into the production and reception of Irish drama, its internationalisation and political influences, within a pivotal period of Irish cultural and social change. From the 1950s onwards, Irish theatre engaged audiences within new theatrical forms at venues from the Pike Theatre, the Project Arts Centre, and the Gate Theatre, as well as at Ireland's national theatre, the Abbey. Drawing on newly released and digitised archival records, this book argues for an inclusive historiography reflective of the formative impacts upon modern Irish theatre as recorded within marginalised performance histories. This study examines these works' experimental dramaturgical impacts in terms of production, reception, and archival legacies. The book, framed by the device of 'archival memory', serves as a means for scholars and theatre-makers to inter-contextualise existing historiography and to challenge canon formation. It also presents a new social history of Irish theatre told from the fringes of history and reanimated through archival memory. Dr. Barry Houlihan is an Archivist at National University of Ireland, Galway. He teaches theatre history and archival studies, digital cultures, and history. Barry is the editor of Navigating Ireland's Theatre Archive: Theory, Practice, Performance (2019) and contributes regularly to RTÉ Brainstorm on topics of theatre, literature and cultural and archival heritage. Acknowledgements Contents List of Figures Chapter 1: Introduction: Towards an Archival Memory—Performance and Archive Can We Witness (or Rewitness) Theatre History? Modernising Ireland—Society, Class and Experimental Form Constructing Archival Memory: Reclaiming the Record, Reinterpreting Historiography Theories of Social Remembering—Memory and Political Resonances Remembering Irish Theatre—Political and Historiographical Problems Internationalisng Irish Theatre Post-1951: Influences, Resonances and Archival Legacies Culture and Gender on the Modern Irish Stage—A Feminist Archival Lens Chapter 2: Performing the Family: Law and the State Women and Cultural Production: Breaking the Domestic Fourth Wall Gender and Performing Roles in Ireland—Finding Voice Women, Ireland and Disrupting the Social Order Carolyn Swift—Throwing off ‘The Millstone’ Carolyn Swift and Establishing the Pike Aesthetic Production and Reception—The Millstone, Childhood Adoption and Irish Society of the 1950s “A Most Alarming Thing”—Edna O’Brien and Staging a ‘Pagan Ireland’ Reception of A Pagan Place—The ‘Playwright on the Stairs’ and the Psychological Choke Conclusion—Archival Memory of Absent Women Chapter 3: Internationalising Irish Drama: A Global Stage Siobhán McKenna and Hamlet’s Irish Voice Locating a New Irish Drama—‘Ireland on Stage’ The Globe Theatre and Genevieve Lyons—A New Irish Theatre Returning Home: Yanks and Country Boys—The Changing Irish Homeplace Addressing Youth Culture in Post-Emergency Ireland The Country Boy and Staging Modernising Ireland Conclusion Chapter 4: The Pike Theatre and Intercultural Ireland Further Follies and Cultural Exchanges: Say It with Follies, 1956–1957 The Pike Follies and Irish Trade—Irish Culture Inc. Follies in the Sun: The Emerald Isle and the Caribbean Conclusion Chapter 5: Radical Dramaturgies: Censorship and Dramatic Expression Links to Theatre Movements in Great Britain Theatre, Ireland and the 1950s: New Beginnings The Catholic Church, Censorship and Monitoring of Irish Theatre The Birth of The Ginger Man and Ireland’s Look Back in Anger The Ginger Man and Staging Domestic Conflict Archival Memory and Evidence: Recovering The Ginger Man— Censorship and Reception Conclusion Chapter 6: Staging the Memoryscape of Middle-Class Ireland Leonard and the Irish Canon—The Outsider and an Uneasy Relationship Becoming ‘Hugh Leonard’ Leonard’s New Ireland and Losing the Land The Arrival of Hugh Leonard A Walk on the Water—Escaping Society and the City Summer—Place, Heritage and Landscape ‘Unreal City’—Leonard and Encountering Memory Conclusion Chapter 7: 1970s Ireland: Performing the Immersive Political Lelia Doolan: ‘Bringing Theatre to the People’ Project Arts Centre: A New Artists Co-operative New Irish Plays at Project: Plays Very Unpleasant We’re Guilty ‘Cause We’re Filthy: Project Arts Centre and Censorship Ireland and the Post-colonial Present: Famine and the ‘Black Man’s Country’ Famine and Ireland: An Embodied Repository of Memory ‘Black Man’s Country’: Irish Missions and Diplomacy ‘Ethiopian with a Touch of Yeats’: Oda Oak Oracle and African-Irish Verse Drama Documentary Theatre and the Immersive Political: Joint Stock and Speaker’s Corner Documentary and Commemoration: Staging the Politics of Memory Healing and Violent Identifies: Graham Reid and Protestant Identity at the Abbey Theatre The Politics of Bodies: Staging Fragility in/from Conflict Conclusion Chapter 8: Conclusions: Memory and the Periphery in Irish Drama Bibliography Archive and Primary Sources Newspapers and Periodicals Books and Articles Index "Theatre and Archival Memory analyses a pivotal but under-explored period in Irish theatre history. Using a staggering array of archival sources - many of which have never before been written about - this book will have a transformative impact on Irish theatre history and historiography." --Professor Patrick Lonergan, MRIA. Professor of Drama and Theatre Studies, NUI Galway. "Breathtaking in its precision and originality, Barry Houlihan's monograph offers a dynamic engagement with the archive which expands the canon of Modern Irish Drama as we know it. Productions and key figures are brought to glorious life through Houlihan's unrivalled range of source materials, interviews, artefacts and ephemera which illuminate previously unknown histories of gender, class and social conditions in Twentieth Century Irish Theatre." --Melissa Sihra, Head of Drama and Associate Professor, Trinity College Dublin. This book presents new insights into the production and reception of Irish drama, its internationalisation and political influences, within a pivotal period of Irish cultural and social change. From the 1950s onwards, Irish theatre engaged audiences within new theatrical forms at venues from the Pike Theatre, the Project Arts Centre, and the Gate Theatre, as well as at Ireland's national theatre, the Abbey. Drawing on newly released and digitised archival records, this book argues for an inclusive historiography reflective of the formative impacts upon modern Irish theatre as recorded within marginalised performance histories. This study examines these works' experimental dramaturgical impacts in terms of production, reception, and archival legacies. The book, framed by the device of 'archival memory', serves as a means for scholars and theatre-makers to inter-contextualise existing historiography and to challenge canon formation. It also presents a new social history of Irish theatre told from the fringes of history and reanimated through archival memory. Dr. Barry Houlihan is an Archivist at National University of Ireland, Galway. He teaches theatre history and archival studies, digital cultures, and history. Barry is the editor of Navigating Ireland's Theatre Archive: Theory, Practice, Performance (2019) and contributes regularly to RTÉ Brainstorm on topics of theatre, literature and cultural and archival heritage.