Productions of the Irish Theatre Movement, 1899-1916: A Checklist

(Hardback)

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The Irish Renaissance encompassed one of the western world's most powerful dramatic movements. But most lists of productions have only included certain premieres, while ignoring all revivals and the productions of lesser-known theatres. This reference is a comprehensive list of all theatrical productions of the early modern Irish dramatic movement, including all premieres and revivals. The volume includes productions from the 1899 founding of the Irish Literary Theatre through the April 1916 Easter Rising, when British martial law significantly altered the course of Irish drama. Entries are provided for more than 1,000 productions, with each entry offering the play's title, author, producing organization, building, city, and dates of performance. The entries are grouped in chapters devoted to particular years and are arranged chronologically within each chapter. The chronological arrangement of the entries reveals the development of Irish theatre, while an extensive index allows alphabetical access to the contents. By including entries for all productions, the volume indicates that many plays that are now neglected were produced numerous times and were central to the drama of the period. This work will force scholars to reconsider the major plays of the period, due to the record of their revivals, and the importance of many neglected plays will now have to be reassessed.

Reviews

"For scholars of Irish nationalist theatre, Nelson O'Ceallaigh Ritschel has provided a long-needed tool for further investigation. Collected in this single volume is the most complete compilation to date of the premiers and revivals of the Irish theatre in the wake of the 1916 Rising. By meticulously examining contemporary radical newspapers, Ritschel has been able not only to supply a convenient, detailed chronology of the Abbey theatre's production history but also to map more completely than ever before the theatrical landscape from which the Abbey emerged. By including Irish theatrical activity outside Dublin and by incorporating Irish-language as well as English-language productions, this volume provides information essential to the emergence of a more nuanced history of Irish theatre as a whole. All in all, a model of this type of scholarship and one that will guarantee this work's abiding usefulness."-Gary A. Richardson Page Morton Hunter Professor of English Mercer University
"In Productions of the Irish Theatre Movement, Nelson O'Ceallaigh Ritschel documents in checklist form a wealth of theatrical practices in Ireland from the turn of the 20th century through Easter 1916. This new record fundamentally alters our sense of who were the agents of cultural change, where they staged dramas, and how often particular works were revived. The result is a newly diversified sense of the Irish Literary Renaissance in a reference work that will be essential for all scholars of the place and the period."-John P. Harrington Dean of Humanities and Social Sciences at The Cooper Union author of The Irish Play on the New York Stage editor of Modern Irish Drama
"Nelson O'Ceallaigh Ritschel's A Checklist provides a resource that students of the Irish theatre have long needed but have (shockingly) lacked: an accurate, comprehensive chronicle of theatre productions in Ireland during the Literary Renaissance. Ritschel's work alters our view of the Irish Theatre Movement by giving us the valleys as well as the peaks, the fertile theatrical culture of long-forgotten plays as well as the canonical ones of Synge, Gregory, and Yeats. A Checklist is a reference tool that will enable useful work of historicizing and recovery by students of this important chapter in the history of the theatre."-James Hurt Professor of English University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
.,."will be of particular value to researchers in the field of theatrical and literary history."-Ireland of the Welcomes
...will be of particular value to researchers in the field of theatrical and literary history.-Ireland of the Welcomes
..."will be of particular value to researchers in the field of theatrical and literary history."-Ireland of the Welcomes

Author Bio

NELSON O'CEALLAIGH RITSCHEL is Assistant Professor of Humanities at Massachusetts Maritime Academy. His essays have appeared in such journals as LIT: Literature, Interpretation, Theory and New Hibernia Review. His previous books include Productions of the Irish Theatre Movement, 1899-1916 (Greenwood, 2001).