Working-Class Women in Irish Literature and Theatre

Working-Class Women in Irish Literature and Theatre critically engages with works of theatre both by and about working-class women historically and presently.

Working-Class Women in Irish Literature and Theatre critically engages with works of theatre both by and about working-class women historically and presently. The work of J. M. Synge, Sean O'Casey and the Allegood Sisters has shaped working-class characterisation and representation on Irish stages, the impact of which still echoes today. Contemporary playwrights Rosaleen McDonagh, Frank McGuinness and Deirdre Kinahan have reframed the characterisation of working-class women by drawing out the intersection of social class with sexualities, ethnic minorities, and racial identities. While these playwrights have written working-class women into existence in the south, important work has also taken place in the north, where the work of Charabanc and JustUs has tirelessly striven to illuminate working-class women's lived experiences. This edited collection also includes the voices of directors, playwrights, and performers who identify as working class through interviews conducted with Louise Lowe, Veronica Dyas, Felispeaks, and Emmet Kirwan in order to offer first-hand accounts of their lived experience in the theatre industry.

Autorentext

Clara Mallon recently completed her PhD thesis at the O'Donoghue Centre for Drama, Theatre and Performance, University of Galway. Her project was funded by the Irish Research Council's Postgraduate Scholarship and centres on the representation of the working class in Irish theatre and performance in Ireland. She has published with the Irish University Review, and has a number of chapters in edited collections. She occasionally lectures at University College Dublin.

Salomé Paul is a Teaching Fellow in Drama Studies at University College Dublin (UCD). She completed a cotutelle PhD from Sorbonne University and UCD in 2020. She was awarded the French Government Medal and the National University of Ireland Prize for Distinction in Collaborative Degrees for her doctoral research in 2021. She was the recipient of the Two-Year Postdoctoral Scheme of the Irish Research Council from 2020 to 2022, which led to the publication of her monograph Marina Carr and Greek Tragedy: Feminist Myths of Monstrosity in 2024.

Inhalt

Introduction: No Working-Class Women in Irish Culture? by Clara Mallon and Salomé Paul

Section One: Absent Presence: Working-Class Women in the Canon

Chapter One: "Not in Flesh": The Construction and Deconstruction of "Poor Woman" in Irish Theatre by Salomé Paul

Chapter Two: Working-Class Actresses and Working-Class Roles: Ireland in the 1910s and 1950s by Cathy Leeney

Chapter Three: The Juno Complex: Tracing Representations of Working-Class Women in Contemporary Dublin Theatre by Fiona Charleton

Section Two: Class, Convergence and Consciousness on the Contemporary Stage

Chapter Four: Theatre of Grace Dyas: Classed Re-Imaginings of Social and Cultural Histories by Clara Mallon and Salomé Paul

Chapter Five: "Who are you angry with?": Class, Race, and Conflict in the Plays of Rosaleen McDonagh by Justine Nakase

Chapter Six: Hope in the Face of Despair: (Re)Presenting Working-Class Women in Natural History of Hope by Clara Mallon

Chapter Seven: The Bearable, Bridgeable and the Imaginable: Deirdre Kinahan's The Unmanageable Sisters by Eamonn Jordan

Chapter Eight: "Wakened" Solidarity: Making the Invisible Visible for Working-Class Women in Frank McGuinness's The Factory Girls by David Cregan

Section Three: Fractured Existences: Women on the Periphery in Theatre in the North of Ireland

Chapter Nine: Women's Work: Challenging Social Dysfunction through Working-Class Women's Performance Practice in the North of Ireland by Ciara L. Murphy

Chapter Ten: Confinement, Resistance and Reclaiming Space in JustUs's Just a Prisoner's Wife by Michael Pierse

Section Four: Breaking Silence: In Conversation with Working-Class Artists

Chapter Eleven: In Conversation with Veronica Dyas

Chapter Twelve: In Conversation with Louise Lowe

Chapter Thirteen: In Conversation with Felispeaks

Chapter Fourteen: In Conversation with Emmet Kirwan