The Theatre in the West

Abstract

The development of theatre in Ireland in the second half of the twentieth century has differed from the development of theatre in mainland Britain in one crucial respect. New British and English drama (the terms are used interchangeably even by sensitive English commentators) has, since 1957, regarded the process of defining what it is to be ‘British’ (= English) as both necessary and awkward: an embarrassing duty within the dominant hegemony. By contrast, new Irish theatre has found the process of defining what it is to be ‘Irish’ creative and stimulating: a challenge to colonial stereotyping. This does not imply that Irish playwrights are more chauvinistic, or that English playwrights are more self-critical.