This is a book of insight and imagination. It is a literary tour de force, where 28 Irish plays are examined and their rich cultural context exposed in a way that educates and excites. To read Anne O'Reilly's analysis leaves one longing to return to theatre and to play. While the text is utterly readable, the ideas shared are profound. The theme 'journey' is common in every play but it is explored from different angles; we glimpse understandings of the journey in search of...
'The Drunkard is a wonderfully eloquent play.’Young Edward Kilcullen's life is blighted by alcohol. Lawyer McGinty desires possession of all the Kilcullens ever owned and relishes the prospect of his demise. However, the temperance preacher and philanthropist Sir Arden Rencelaw is at hand…Can the young Kilcullen be saved? And what is Agnes, the maniac's, hidden secret? Comedy, tragedy, heroics, villainy and song in this exuberant, life affirming version of The Drunkard.'
The Informer, Tom Murphy’s stage adaptation of Liam O’Flaherty’s novel, was produced in the 1981 Dublin Theatre Festival, directed by the playwright himself, with Liam Neeson in the leading role. The central subject of the play is the quest a character at the point of emotional and moral breakdown for some source of meaning or identity. In the case of Gypo Nolan, the informer of the title, this involves a nightmarish progress through a Dublin underworld in which he changes from a Judas figure to...
With such plays as The Beauty Queen (1996), The cripple of Irishman (1997), The Lonesome West (1997), A skull in Connemara (1997), The Lieutenant of Irishmore (2001), and The Pillowman (2003) Martin McDonagh has made a huge reputation for himself internationally, winning multiple awards for his work and enjoying universal critical acclaim. Most recently, he won an Oscar for his short film, Six Shooter (2006). This Collection of essays is a vital and significant response to the many challenges...
Her book, written in the mid-20th century, is now published in full for the first time. It draws on her long experience as performer, broadcaster what she learnt from her teachers about Liszt’s interpretation of the piano music of his contemporaries, in particular of his friend Chopin, how he wanted his own piano works performed, and what special techniques facilitated the interpretations he favoured, as well as his own virtuoso performance. This is presented in discussions of many well-known...
Death is silent; all the ‘tales’ we hear about it – be they of a religious, philosophical, scientific or artistic nature – are told by other humans. but specific deaths are often utilised to reconfirm or challenge existing societal structures, values and belief systems. the eight ‘tales’ collated here – based on the work of the Research Strand Death, Burial and the Afterlife at University College Dublin’s College of arts and humanities – present numerous interdisciplinary examples of how this...
Ours would appear to be an era of unprecedented variation in the mediation of meaning – television, computer, the older forms of radio and print. Since, however, such profusion of resources has not of itself guaranteed enhanced profundity or sophistication in our modes of understanding – psychological, sociological, philosophical, historical, and theological – the issue of the continued relevance of cultural forms, dependent both on the human voice and on ritualization, presents itself for...
Ours would appear to be an era of unprecedented variation in the mediation of meaning – television, computer, the older forms of radio and print. Since, however, such profusion of resources has not of itself guaranteed enhanced profundity or sophistication in our modes of understanding – psychological, sociological, philosophical, historical, and theological – the issue of the continued relevance of cultural forms, dependent both on the human voice and on ritualization, presents itself for...