The Theatre of Tom Murphy: Playwright Adventurer
(Hardback)
Publishing Details
The Theatre of Tom Murphy: Playwright Adventurer
By (Author) Professor Nicholas Grene
Series edited by Kevin J. Wetmore
Series edited by Patrick Lonergan
Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
Methuen Drama
5th October 2017
United Kingdom
Classifications
Tertiary Education
Non Fiction
Literary studies: c 1900 to c 2000
Theatre studies
822.914
Physical Properties
Hardback
272
Width 138mm, Height 216mm
463g
Description
Tom Murphy shot to fame with the London production of A Whistle in the Dark in 1961, establishing him as the outstanding Irish playwright of his generation. The international success of DruidMurphy, the 2012-13 staging of three of his major plays by the Druid Theatre Company, served to underline his continuing appeal and importance. This is the first full scale academic study devoted to his theatre, providing an overview of all his work, with a detailed reading of his most significant texts. His powerful and searchingly honest engagement with Irish history and society is reflected in the violent Whistle in the Dark, the epic Famine (1968), the often hilarious Conversations on a Homecoming (1985) and the darkly Chekhovian The House (2000). Folklore and myth figure more prominently in the spiritual drama of The Sanctuary Lamp (1975), the Faustian Gigli Concert (1983) and the womens stories of Bailegangaire (1985). The range and reach of Murphys theatre is demonstrated in this informed reading, supported by key interviews with the playwright himself and his most important theatrical and critical interpreters.
Reviews
The best and most complete [book on Murphy] that anyone has yet produced and all future scholars and critics will use it as a diving board from which to plunge into Murphy's deep and turbulent waters. * Fintan OToole, The Irish Times *
Author Bio
Nicholas Grene is Professor of English Literature at Trinity College Dublin and a Member of the Royal Irish Academy. He has published widely on Shakespeare and on Irish literature: his books include The Politics of Irish Drama (1999), Shakespeares Serial History Plays (2002), Yeatss Poetic Codes ( 2008), Synge and Edwardian Ireland ( 2011), co-edited with Brian Cliff. He has written extensively on Murphy, including editing the volume of essays Talking about Tom Murphy (2001) and writing the Introduction to Tom Murphy, Plays: 5 (Bloomsbury Methuen Drama, 2006).
