Irish Drama in Theory and Practice

In this assignment, your job is to develop a five-page essay that combines multiple sources – not exclusively plays, but also poetry, peer-reviewed articles, songs, books, images, your own understanding – to give a comprehensive sense of the elements that comprise the challenging times in Ireland’s early-to-mid 20^th century.

Before you begin this assignment, consider the following questions and statements. You do not have to answer all of them, but they are an excellent starting point.

• Theatre of the Absurd arose at a particular time in history (why?), and Samuel Beckett’s works are considered among the genre’s most important.
• Brendan Behan’s plays continue in the vein of Oscar Wilde’s in that they play with contradictions and paradoxes, and feature people in jail.
• What was “challenging” about the mid-20^th century in Ireland?
• In a post-Independence Ireland, how does one build a new nation?
• How did Sean O’Casey’s urban “Dublin plays” foreshadow Beckett’s work?
• How do Irish people perceive their history in Beckett, O’Casey, and Behan?
• What is Irish about these plays, and in their characters?
• Who is missing from these works in the plays, songs, poems, etc.?

Checklist:

1. All of your expressive (visual, literary, musical, dramatic) examples must be from between 1890 and 1960, but articles, books, and films may be more contemporary.
2. All of your expressive (visual, literary, musical, dramatic) examples must be made by Irish people, but articles, books, and films may be by others.
3. Cite at least two poems
4. Cite at least one song
5. Cite at least one film
6. Cite at least three plays
7. Cite at least one presentation by Walter, and one presentation by Sean
8. Cite at least one peer-reviewed article (not Wikipedia)
9. Use one photograph (embed in your essay)
10. Use one painting (embed in your essay)
11. Include your own ideas
12. Include an introduction with a thesis statement, and a conclusion