Performing Shakespeare in Ireland, 1660-1922

CONFERENCE ANNOUNCEMENT

Performing Shakespeare in Ireland, 1660-1922

Moore Institute, National University of Ireland, Galway

3-4 September 2010

During the last fifteen years, many valuable studies on the relationship between Shakespeare and Ireland have appeared. These have enhanced and complicated our understanding of the impact of Irish politics on Elizabethan and Jacobean drama in general, and have led to the detailed re-assessment of Shakespeare’s History plays in particular. Simultaneously, we have also seen new work on the impact of Shakespeare on Irish literature after the Revival, with special emphasis on inter-textual references to Shakespeare in the work of Yeats, Joyce, O’Casey, Heaney, and many others. In other words, we now have a good understanding of the relationship between Shakespeare and Ireland, both in the sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries on the one hand, and in the twentieth century on the other.

The purpose of this conference is to investigate the intervening centuries: to explore and, if appropriate, to retrieve the histories of Shakespearean performance in Ireland from the Restoration to the Revival. It aims to consider the place of Shakespeare in the development of Irish theatre before the foundation of the Abbey, and assesses the importance of Ireland for the development of Shakespearean performance, publishing, and editing internationally during the same period.

The conference will feature discussion of the place of Ireland in Shakespeare’s works, and we will explore a variety of case studies from the period 1660 to 1922 – considering key events, major actors, general trends, and so on. One of the major aims of the conference will be to trace the extent to which Shakespeare’s treatment of Ireland and the Irish had an impact on the performance and reception of his plays after 1660.

The conference will begin at lunchtime on Friday 3 September and will continue through to the evening of Saturday 4 September.

The conference coincides with the Druid Theatre production of Sean O’Casey’s The Silver Tassie, which delegates are warmly encouraged to attend (see www.druid.ie/ for details).

Confirmed speakers include:

• Conrad Brunstrom, “Thomas Sheridan’s Coriolanus and Thomas Sheridan as Coriolanus”.
• Helen Burke, “‘Bon Ton Theatricals’, Shakespeare, and the Culture Wars in Late 18th Century Ireland”
• Richard Foulkes, “The English Bard and Irish Reviewers Shakespeare and Ireland 1864-1916”.
• Stephen Kelly, ‘Shakespeare and Politics in Restoration Dublin’
• John Kerrigan, ‘”By Chrish Law”: Henry V, Oaths and Ireland’.
• Willy Maley, “Othello and the Irish Question”.
• Deirdre McFeely, ‘Shakespeare on the Dublin Stage, 1660-1904’
• Andrew Murphy, “W. B. Yeats’ Irish Renaissance”
• Stephen Watt, “Shakespeare in Fin de Si̬cle Ireland: Ghosts, Celebrities, and The Merchant of Venice”

Respondents: Nicholas Grene and Anthony Roche.

Registration

Registration for the event is free, but places are limited. To register, please send an email to Patrick.Lonergan@nuigalway.ie before 27 August 2010.

This event is funded by the Irish Research Council for the Humanities and Social Sciences (www.irchss.ie/)

Conference organising committee: Daniel Carey, Marie-Louise Coolahan, Patrick Lonergan, Deirdre McFeely.