Abstract
Irish theatre is renowned for its playwrights, its politics and, to a lesser extent perhaps, its performers. It is widely considered a tradition of great literary wealth, of postcolonial significance, but what of the people who actually perform it? Who, night after night, take to our stages to sometimes almost empty houses in frustrating roles or substandard working conditions—what of the actors?
This chapter seeks to address the actor’s theatre in its complexity and elusiveness as an embodied phenomenon, with attention to some of the people, productions and issues raised by the topic, and occasional attempts to gain insight from the actors’ own words.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Similar content being viewed by others
Notes
- 1.
Zeami, Performance Notes, translated by Tom Hare (New York: Columbia UP., 2008), 100.
- 2.
See indicative list of names of actors towards the end of the chapter.
- 3.
Such actors include Pat Kinevane and his work in the one-man show or solo-performance format Forgotten (2006), Silent (2011) and Underneath (2016). Pat Kinevane with Fishamble’s artistic director Jim Culleton, won the Olivier Award for Outstanding Achievement in an Affiliate Theatre for Silent. See http://www.irishtimes.com/culture/stage/pat-kinevane-s-singular-vision-from-the-brink-of-the-world-1.2022636
- 4.
- 5.
Jerzy Grotowski, (ed. Eugenio Barba) Towards a Poor Theatre (London: Bloomsbury, 1991 (1968)), 212
- 6.
See Morash’s A History of Irish Theatre 1601–2000, Cambridge, 2002, Sweeney’s Performing the Body in Irish Theatre Palgrave Macmillan 2008, and Pilkington’s Theatre and Ireland Palgrave Macmillan 2010.
- 7.
W.G Fay and Catherine Carswell, The Fays of the Abbey Theatre, https://archive.org/stream/faysoftheabbeyth006134mbp/faysoftheabbeyth006134mbp_djvu.txt, 34.
- 8.
Ibid., 5.
- 9.
See also Tom Madden’s The Making of an Artist: Creating the Irishman Micheál MacLiammóir (Dublin: The Liffey Press, 2015).
- 10.
Wolfgang Saxon, “Siobhan Mckenna Is Dead; Actress Known For St. Joan”, The New York Times, November 17, 1986, http://www.nytimes.com/1986/11/17/obituaries/siobhan-mckenna-is-dead-actress-known-for-st-joan.html, par.8.
- 11.
Éamon Kelly, The Journeyman, (Colorado: The Irish American Book Company, 1998), 127–8.
- 12.
Ibid., 85–6.
- 13.
Anne Bogart, And then, you act (London: Routledge, 2007), 39.
- 14.
Hugh Leonard quoted in Theatre Talk: Voices of Irish Theatre Practitioners, eds. Lillian Chambers, Ger FitzGibbon and Eamonn Jordan (Dublin: Carysfort Press, 2001), 260.
- 15.
Jim Norton quoted in Patrick O’Kane, Actors’ Voices: The People Behind the Performances (London: Oberon Books, 2012), 293.
- 16.
Ibid., 292.
- 17.
Chambers et al., Theatre Talk, 155.
- 18.
Ibid., 157.
- 19.
See “Olwen Fouéré’s corpus: the performer’s body and her body of work” by Shonagh Hill in Radical Contemporary Theatre practices by Women in Ireland, eds. Miriam Haughton and Mária Kurdi (Carysfort, 2015).
- 20.
I clearly remember, years ago, watching Fouéré participate in an open workshop on the Abbey stage conducted by Berlin’s Schaubühne. As one of those in “the audience” I remember being struck by her honesty and her ability to remain open to learning while participating in what was essentially a performance. She was remarkable because of this—as probably the most experienced actor there she also seemed, to me at least, to be the most present, and the most humble.
- 21.
Fintan Walsh, “Sodome: My Love”, tmarchive.ie/web/Reviews/Current/Sodome--My-Love.html, par. 4.
- 22.
See also Cathy Leeney’s “Second skin: costume and body: power and desire”, in Radical Contemporary Theatre practices by Women in Ireland, eds. Miriam Haughton and Mária Kurdi (Carysfort, 2015).
- 23.
- 24.
- 25.
Peter Brook, There are no secrets: Thoughts on Acting and Theatre (London: Methuen, 1993), 33.
- 26.
Sarah Hemming, “Interview: Lisa Dwan”, The Financial Times, https://www.ft.com/content/f0e27a1e-f8b9-11e4-be00-00144feab7de, par.4.
- 27.
Michael Coffey, “Lisa Dwan and Walter Asmus”, BOMB Magazine, April 12, 2016, http://bombmagazine.org/article/333746/lisa-dwan-walter-asmus, par. 10.
- 28.
Belinda McKeon, “Lisa Dwan: ‘Beckett Made These Wounds Universal’”, The Guardian, September 17, 2016, https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2016/sep/17/lisa-dwan-samuel-beckett-nos-knife, par. 12.
- 29.
See Fouéré entry.
- 30.
Maria Rolston, “Charlie Murphy is drawn back into the darkness with new show Arlington”, Irish Examiner, July 5, 2016, http://www.irishexaminer.com/lifestyle/artsfilmtv/charlie-murphy-is-drawn-back-into-the-darkness-with-new-show-arlington-408453.html, par.20.
- 31.
Norton quoted in O’Kane, Actors’ Voices, 302.
- 32.
Anon, “Left Holding Baby Offstage”, The Irish Times, November 12, 1998, http://www.irishtimes.com/culture/left-holding-baby-off-stage-1.213682, par.1.
Bibliography
http://www.wakingthefeminists.org/. Accessed 30 March, 2016.
Anon. “Left Holding Baby Offstage.” The Irish Times, November 12, 1998. http://www.irishtimes.com/culture/left-holding-baby-off-stage-1.213682. Accessed 28 March, 2016.
Anon. “MacLiammóir’s Magic Captivates an Innocent Galway.” Galway Advertiser, March 13, 2014. http://www.advertiser.ie/galway/article/67950/macliammirs-magic-captivates-an-innocent-galway. Accessed 29 March, 2016a.
Anon. “Remembering Michael Mac Liammóir, an Irishman from London.” RTÉ Archives, http://www.rte.ie/archives/2013/0306/374380-michael-mac-liammoire-an-irishman-from-london/. Accessed 29 March, 2016b.
Anon. “Siobhán McKenna -- A legend in Irish Theatre.” Galway Advertiser, March 27, 2014. http://www.advertiser.ie/galway/article/68048/siobhn-mckenna-a-legend-in-irish-theatre. Accessed 28 March, 2016.
Armstrong, Maggie. “Stage - Mover and Shaker: The Solo comeback of Tom Hickey.” Irish Independent, April 17, 2016. http://www.independent.ie/entertainment/theatre-arts/stage-mover-and-shaker-the-solo-comeback-of-tom-hickey-34628284.html. Accessed 20 April, 2017.
Auld, Tim. “Stephen Rea: ‘I Never Wanted to be a Polite Actor.’” The Telegraph, March 25, 2016. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/theatre/actors/stephen-rea-interview-i-never-wanted-to-be-a-polite-actor/. Accessed 28 March, 2016.
Bogart, Anne. And Then, You Act. London: Routledge, 2007.
Brook, Peter. There Are No Secrets: Thoughts on Acting and Theatre. London: Methuen, 1993.
Chambers, Lillian, Ger FitzGibbon and Eamonn Jordan, eds. Theatre Talk: Voices of Irish Theatre Practitioners. Dublin: Carysfort Press, 2001.
Clayton-Lea, Tony. All the Range. https://issuu.com/caraaugust/docs/cara_july_2016. Accessed 10 July, 2016.
Coffey, Michael. “Lisa Dwan and Walter Asmus.” BOMB Magazine, April 12, 2016. http://bombmagazine.org/article/333746/lisa-dwan-walter-asmus. Accessed 30 April, 2016.
Crawley, Peter. “Pat Kinevane’s Singular Vision from the Brink of the World.” The Irish Times, December 3, 2014. http://www.irishtimes.com/culture/stage/pat-kinevane-s-singular-vision-from-the-brink-of-the-world-1.2022636. Accessed 10 July, 2016.
http://www.dublincity.ie/sites/default/files/content//RecreationandCulture/libraries/Heritage%20and%20History/Dublin%20City%20Archives/Documents/Liammoir_collection.pdf. Accessed 30 March, 2016.
http://www.donalokellyproductions.com. Accessed 28 March, 2016.
Fay, W. G., and Catherine Carswell. The Fays of the Abbey Theatre. https://archive.org/stream/faysoftheabbeyth006134mbp/faysoftheabbeyth006134mbp_djvu.txt. Accessed 21 March, 2016.
Fitz-Simon, Christopher. The Boys: A Biography of Micheál MacLíammóir and Hilton Edwards. London. Nick Hern Books. 1994.
Frazier, Adrian. Behind The Scenes: Yeats, Horniman and the Struggle for the Abbey Theatre. University of California Press, 1990.
Grotowski, Jerzy. Towards a Poor Theatre. London: Methuen, 1991 (1968).
Gussow, Mel. “Modify Beckett? Enter, Outrage.” The New York Times, March 26, 1994. http://www.nytimes.com/1994/03/26/arts/modify-beckett-enter-outrage.html. Accessed 20 March, 2016.
Hemming, Sarah. “Interview: Lisa Dwan.” The Financial Times. https://www.ft.com/content/f0e27a1e-f8b9-11e4-be00-00144feab7de. Accessed 17 July, 2017.
Haughton, Miriam and Mária Kurdi, eds. Radical Contemporary Theatre Practices by Women in Ireland. Dublin: Carysfort, 2015.
Kelly, Éamon. The Journeyman. Colorado: The Irish American Book Company, 1998.
Kennedy, Maev. “Olwen Fouéré’s Riverrun, The Watery Voice of Joyce’s Finnegan’s Wake.” The Guardian, February 14, 2004. https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2014/feb/14/riverrun-joyce-finnegans-wake-olwen-fouere-national-theatre. Accessed 28 March, 2016.
Laffan, Pat and Faith O’Grady. Donal McCann Remembered: A Tribute. Dublin: New Island Books, 2000.
Lane, Anthony. “Chatterbox.”http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2014/09/29/chatterbox. Accessed 30 June, 2017.
Leeney, Cathy. “Second Skin: Costume and Body: Power and Desire” in Radical Contemporary Theatre Practices by Women in Ireland, edited by Miriam Haughton and Mária Kurdi. Carysfort, 2015.
Madden, Tom. The Making of an Artist: Creating the Irishman Micheál MacLíammóir. Dublin: The Liffey Press, 2015.
Mikhail, E. H., ed. The Abbey Theatre: Interviews and Recollections. New Jersey: Barnes & Noble Books, 1988.
Morash, Christopher. A History of Irish Theatre 1601–2000. Cambridge University Press, 2002.
McKeon, Belinda. “Lisa Dwan: ‘Beckett Made These Wounds Universal.’” The Guardian, September 17, 2016. https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2016/sep/17/lisa-dwan-samuel-beckett-nos-knife. Accessed 28 June, 2017.
O’Kane, Patrick. Actors’ Voices: The People Behind the Performances. London: Oberon Books, 2012.
Pilkington, Lionel. Theatre and Ireland. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan 2010.
Rolston, Maria. “Charlie Murphy is drawn back into the darkness with new show Arlington.” Irish Examiner, July 5, 2016. http://www.irishexaminer.com/lifestyle/artsfilmtv/charlie-murphy-is-drawn-back-into-the-darkness-with-new-show-arlington-408453.html. Accessed 28 March, 2017.
Saxon, Wolfgang. Siobhan Mckenna Is Dead; Actress Known For St. Joan. The New York Times, November 17, 1986. http://www.nytimes.com/1986/11/17/obituaries/siobhan-mckenna-is-dead-actress-known-for-st-joan.html. Accessed 02 April, 2016.
Shaw, Fiona. “Playing Electra in Derry Helped Me see the Power of Tragedy.” The Guardian, April 29, 2014. https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2014/apr/29/fiona-shaw-electra-northern-ireland-tragedy. Accessed 02 April, 2016.
Sweeney, Bernadette. Performing the Body in Irish Theatre. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2008.
Sweeney, Bernadette, and Marie Kelly. The Theatre of Tom Mac Intyre: Strays from the Ether. Dublin: Carysfort Press, 2010.
Walsh, Fintan. “Sodome: My Love.” tmarchive.ie/web/Reviews/Current/Sodome--My-Love.html. Accessed 20 April, 2017.
Woddis, Carole. “Powerful Package Makes Electra a Gas.” Herald Scotland, December 30, 1991. http://www.heraldscotland.com/news/12649839.Powerful_package_makes_Electra_a_gas/. Accessed 28 March, 2016.
Zeami. Performance Notes, translated by Tom Hare. New York: Columbia University Press, 2008.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Copyright information
© 2018 The Author(s)
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Sweeney, B. (2018). Irish Theatre: An Actor’s Theatre. In: Jordan, E., Weitz, E. (eds) The Palgrave Handbook of Contemporary Irish Theatre and Performance. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-58588-2_26
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-58588-2_26
Published:
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London
Print ISBN: 978-1-137-58587-5
Online ISBN: 978-1-137-58588-2
eBook Packages: Literature, Cultural and Media StudiesLiterature, Cultural and Media Studies (R0)