Ireland has been a rich source of plays and playwrights for the last 300 years or so. This course will examine the contributions of Irish playwrights to the developments of drama and theater in the twentieth century. We’ll begin the course at the end of the nineteenth century with Wilde, Shaw, Lady Gregory and Yeats, and examine the relations between established London theaters and the evolution of a “national” theater in Ireland.

At the beginning of the twentieth century, The Abbey Theater in Dublin became a force for revitalizing dramatic arts in Ireland, and beyond, and we’ll focus on the variety of plays that were developed for that influential venue by such as Synge, O’Casey, Robinson, and others, as well as some later Irish plays (produced away from the Abbey), such as those by Beckett and Friel. We'll conclude with some contemporary plays which have reestablished a strong Irish presence in London, New York, and Seattle theaters (e.g., McPherson, McDonagh).

Required texts:


Wilde, Oscar. The Importance of Being Earnest and Other Plays. New York: Oxford U Press, 1998.
Harrington, John P., ed. Modern And Contemporary Irish Drama. 2nd ed. New York: W.W. Norton, 2008.
McDonagh, Martin. The Beauty Queen of Leenane and Other Plays. New York: Knopf Doubleday (Vintage), 1998.