Masculinities and the Contemporary Irish Theatre

Irish theatre and its histories have been dominated by men in their actions to the point where theatre critic Helen Meany once said that she had seen so many father-son relationships in Irish theatre that she almost believed she had one herself! However, close readings of a variety of performative encounters in Ireland in the past twenty-five years point to an altogether different story. Socially and culturally contextualized performance analysis in this book reveals masculinities that are anything but hegemonic, played out in the theatres and other arenas of performance all over Ireland. These masculinities are not necessarily white, Catholic, middle-class and straight. In fact, many of them fall between the cracks in the edifice of dominance because of their class, race, religion and sexuality, while some culturally contest the performance of patriarchy in Irish society. And there are many, until now, that have been excluded from the narratives of Irish theatre history altogether. Beginning in the early 1990s this book deconstructs the masculinities in Irish performance to the present day. This paperback edition features a substantial new essay in the form of a Preface that brings the story forward from 2011 when the hardback edition first appeared.

Brian Singleton is Samuel Beckett Professor of Drama & Theatre, and Academic Director of The Lir – National Academy of Dramatic Art at Trinity College Dublin, Ireland. He was the winner in 2012 (with Janelle Reinelt) of the ATHE Excellence in Editing Award for the book series Studies in International Performance, and now edits (with Elaine Aston) the series Contemporary Performance InterActions, both published by Palgrave Macmillan.