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This book examines the dramatic rewritings that emerged in the period 1970-2007, during which stage adaptations flourished in Ireland. The year 1970 marked the beginning of a significant theatrical renaissance in Ireland, recalling that which occurred in the early twentieth century. This renewal was characterized by the prominence of major playwrights such as Brian Friel, Tom Murphy and Thomas Kilroy. The essays collected in this volume seek to provide new perspectives on theatre adaptation in Ireland, while shedding light on the particular features of the contemporary Irish theatre landscape. Far from being an exhaustive history of theatre adaptation, these articles, using differing methodologies, investigate the many ways in which adaptation has left its imprint on Irish theatre since the 1970s.
Appended to this book is a DVD that offers excerpts from a staged reading of Enda Walsh's Pondlife Angels. This DVD also includes the recording of a roundtable discussion, in which two Irish directors express their views on contemporary Irish theatre.
List of contents
Contents: Thierry Dubost: Introduction - Alain Labau: Adaptation(s). Staging Otherness or Translation at Play - Catherine Piola: Stage Adaptations and the Dublin Theatre Festival - Jacques Tranier: Of Birds and Men, Aristophanes Revisited. William Arrowsmith vs Paul Muldoon - Hélène Lecossois: From Medea to Hester Swane. Marina Carr's Rewriting of Ethos in By the Bog of Cats - Martine Pelletier: Field Day Revisits the Classics. Tom Paulin's The Riot Act - Virginie Roche-Tiengo: Brian Friel's Theatrical Adaptations of Chekhov Works - Matthieu Kolb: A Doll's House by Frank McGuinness. An Expression of Irish Cosmopolitanism? - Bertrand Cardin: John McGahern's The Power of Darkness. Palimpsest or Pale Incest? - Makmouth Dia: Tragic Perspectives of a Comedy. The Broken Jug from Heinrich Von Kleist to John Banville - Christopher L. Berchild: A Keen Adaptation. «Caoineadh Airt Uí Laoghaire» and Bolger's The Lament for Arthur Cleary - Victor Merriman: B(e)aring Uncomfortable Truths. Intranational Translation as Critical Strategy in Plays by Barry, Bolger and O'Kelly - Émile-Jean Dumay: From Intrusion to Integration in Two Recent Plays by Dermot Bolger - Mathias Lebargy: Frank Pig Says Hello. Rewritings - Pascale Sardin: Atom Egoyan Adapts Samuel Beckett. From Theatre to Television and Back - Patrick Mason: God Is in the Bits and Pieces. The Great Hunger, from Poem to Play - Thierry Dubost: The Metamorphoses of Enrico IV, or Kilroyandello's Henry - Anne Étienne: Pond Life and Angels. Enda Walsh's Adaptations to Cork - Donal Gallagher: MEAT at the Midsummer Festival Workshop - Thierry Dubost: Conclusion.
About the author
Thierry Dubost is a professor at the University of Caen, Basse-Normandie, France. He is the author of Struggle, Defeat or Rebirth: Eugene O¿Neill¿s Vision of Humanity (1997) and The Plays of Thomas Kilroy (2007), and has coedited five books. His research interests include Irish, American, and African drama. His translation of Wole Soyinkäs Death and the King¿s Horseman was published in 1986.
