Modern Irish Drama

By Jan L. Harrington

The texts are fully annotated with explanatory notes on Anglo-Irish usage, place names, historical figures, and literary allusions. "Backgrounds and Criticism" contains almost fifty texts relevant to the twelve plays represented. Included are prefaces by the authors, reports by spectators on original productions, memoirs concerning playwrights and performances, and recent critical assessments by American, British, and Irish scholars. From its collection of documents relevant to the origin of the Irish Literary Revival in the midst of Ireland's republican revolution to the recent formation of the Field Day Company in Northern Ireland, Modern Irish Drama charts the rise and development of one of the most powerful national dramas of the twentieth century. A Chronology and Selected Bibliography are also included.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0393960633
• ISBN13: 9780393960631
• Release Date: March 1991
• Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
• Length: 577 Pages
• Weight: 1.28 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.2" x 5.1" x 8.4"

Customer Reviews

good but needs updating

An excellent teaching texts for the pre-1960 years, but badly needs updating with a few more contemporary plays, at least one of which should be by a woman dramatist.

A great text to teach from!

This is one of the only comprehensive texts for teaching the history of Irish drama on the market today. There should be a collection of contemporary Irish plays this good. Oh, and thank you to the reader below for the table of contents! One correction, however: "Cathleen Ni Houlihan" and "On Baile's Strand" are both Yeats plays... there is no playwright Cathleen Ni Houlihan. She's a symbol for a free and romanticized Ireland.

Table of Contents

I'm writing this review to provide others who're considering purchasing this book an outline of content as I became incredibly frustrated when I couldn't find any such details quickly. ... Complete texts of 12 plays by 8 Irish playwrights: Cathleen Ni Hourlihan's "On Baile's Strand", W.B. Yeat's "Purgatory", Lady Gregory's "Spreading the News" and "The Rising of the Moon", J.M. Synge's "Riders to the Sea" and "Playboy of the Western World", G.B. Shaw's "John Bull's Other Island, Sean O'Casey's "Juno and the Paycock", Brendan Behan's "The Quare Fellow", Samuel Beckett's "Krapp's Last Tape", and "Translations" by Brian Friel. Texts are fully annotated with explanatory notes on Anglo-Irish usage, place names, historical figures and literary allusions. Backgrounds, criticism, memoirs, prefaces, chronology and bibliography are also included. Hope this helped!!

Irish Plays

This book is full of wonderful plays that give insight into Irish history. The collection of plays helps one to understand what the revolution was about and the events that caused it.