Theatres of the Troubles: Theatre, Resistance, and Liberation in Ireland

The emergence of Ireland’s grassroots popular theatre is inexorably linked to the struggles of the working-class Republicans and Loyalists of Derry and Belfast—with performances unfolding in and around the latest phase of the four-hundred-year conflict between Britain and Ireland. Theatres of the Troubles conveys how the moment-to-moment unfolding of the conflict determined the organization, texts, performance contexts and receptions, and larger operations of these theatres in the Republican and Loyalist communities. Drawing upon previously unpublished primary sources—including texts, interviews, workshops, and letters—this volume examines how these theatres related to each other, to the European tradition of radical theatre, and to the models of liberation which were developing in the postcolonial context of the Republic. Theatres of Troubles represents a key addition to our understanding of the critical relationship between historical conditions and the development of radical theatre forms, while at the same time telling the story of a people who tried to engage theatre in a volatile, complex, and rapidly recontextualizing political situation.

Bill McDonnell is senior lecturer in theatre at the University of Sheffield.