Peter James Harris Livres

In December 1921 the Anglo-Irish Treaty was signed, which led to the creation of the Irish Free State and the partition of Ireland the following year. The consequences of that attempt to reconcile the conflicting demands of republicans and unionists alike have dictated the course of Anglo-Irish relations ever since. This book explores how the reception of Irish plays staged in theatres in London’s West End serves as a barometer not only of the state of relations between Great Britain and Ireland, but also of the health of the British and Irish theatres respectively. For each of the eight decades following Irish Independence a representative production is set in the context of Anglo-Irish relations in the period and developments in the theatre of the day. The first-night criticism of each production is analysed in the light of its political and artistic context as well as the editorial policy of the publication for which a given critic is writing. The author argues that the relationship between context and criticism is not simply one of cause and effect but, rather, the result of the interplay of a number of cultural, historical, political, artistic and personal factors.

Arguably the greatest twentieth-century Irish dramatist, Sean O’Casey (1880-1964) wrote more than twenty plays. His extensive output also includes a six-volume autobiography and thousands of letters. This study focuses upon O’Casey’s non-dramatic writing in order to trace the development of his opinions concerning playwrights and theatrical tendencies that influenced his own work for the stage. The first section of the book analyses O’Casey’s comments concerning influences prior to his own late start as a playwright – the Bible, Shakespeare, Boucicault and Shaw. The second section surveys his relationship with writers with whom he came into contact as a result of his career at the Abbey Theatre from 1922 to 1926. Finally, the controversy surrounding the rejection of The Silver Tassie in 1928 is examined in the light of his turbulent association with drama critics, his reluctance to accept the critical terminology relating to contemporary dramatic movements, and, in particular, his attitude towards Expressionist playwrights and their precursors. Based upon the premise that the Letters serve as an objective correlative to the subjective hindsight of the Autobiographies, the study demonstrates the ambivalence of O’Casey’s attitudes towards many of his contemporaries, a dynamic largely determined by the traumatic watershed of the rejection of The Silver Tassie.