This book considers the myriad ways in which Irish drama has become increasingly regional and international in scope, and the ways in which theatrical production has followed this decentralizing trajectory. This significant shift from a largely national drama produced in Dublin to a more expansive international drama has been confirmed by the recent success outside of Ireland by what has been confirmed the "third wave" of Irish playwrights in the 1990s -Martin McDonagh, Conor MacPherson, Sebastian Barry, Marina Carr -and constitutes a central focus of this collection. At the same time, this more expansive Irish drama has encouraged cultural and theatrical critics to reconsider their assumptions about both the early national theatre and the dramatic tradition it fostered. Contributors to this volume perform such a critical reassessment at the time of an important historical milestone: the centenary of the first professional production of the Irish Literary Theatre.
They undertake, more specifically, two projects motivated by the evolution of recent Irish drama: first, an investigation of contemporary Irish drama's aesthetic features and socio-political commitments; and second, a re-reading of Irish drama produced earlier in the century. Although these essayists cover a wide range of topics - from the productions and objectives of the Abbey Theatre's first rivals to mid-century theatre festivals to dramas about the "Troubles" in the North - they nevertheless all seek to complicate and understand the oppositions so commonplace in critical discussions of Irish drama: nationalism vs. internationalism, high vs. low culture, urban experience vs. rural or peasant life. "A Century of Irish Drama" includes essays on such figures as W.B. Yeats, Lady Gregory, J.M. Synge, Sean O'Casey, Brendan Behan, Samuel Beckett, Marina Carr, Brian Friel, Frank McGuinness, Christina Read, Martin McDonagh, and many more. Most of the essays were first presented at a symposium, "One Hundred Years of Irish Theatre", convened at Indiana University May 26-29, 1999, and supported by a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities.