Product Description

This Norton Critical Edition reprints the complete texts of twelve plays by eight major Irish playwrights: Cathleen Ni Houlihan, On Baile's Strand, and Purgatory by W. B. Yeats; Spreading the News and The Rising of the Moon by Lady Gregory; Riders to the Sea and Playboy of the Western World by J. M. Synge; John Bull's Other Island by George Bernard Shaw; Juno and the Paycock by Sean O'Casey; The Quare Fellow by Brendan Behan; Krapps Last Tape by Samuel Beckett; and Translations by Brian Friel. The texts are fully annotated with explanatory notes on Anglo-Irish usage, place names, historical figures, and literary allusions. "Backgrounds and Criticism" contains almost fifty texts relevant to the twelve plays represented. Included are prefaces by the authors, reports by spectators on original productions, memoirs concerning playwrights and performances, and recent critical assessments by American, British, and Irish scholars. From its collection of documents relevant to the origin of the Irish Literary Revival in the midst of Ireland's republican revolution to the recent formation of the Field Day Company in Northern Ireland, Modern Irish Drama charts the rise and development of one of the most powerful national dramas of the twentieth century. A Chronology and Selected Bibliography are also included. .

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #61022 in Books
• Published on: 1991-03-17
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 577 pages

About the Author
John P. Harrington is Dean of Faculty of Arts and Sciences at Fordham University. He is the author of The Life of the Neighborhood Playhouse on Grand Street, The Irish Play on the New York Stage, The Irish Beckett: Irish Contexts of Samuel Beckett’s Work, and The English Traveler in Ireland. He has published many articles on a wide range of topics in Irish literature.

Customer Reviews

Table of Contents
I'm writing this review to provide others who're considering purchasing this book an outline of content as I became incredibly frustrated when I couldn't find any such details quickly. ... Complete texts of 12 plays by 8 Irish playwrights: Cathleen Ni Hourlihan's "On Baile's Strand", W.B. Yeat's "Purgatory", Lady Gregory's "Spreading the News" and "The Rising of the Moon", J.M. Synge's "Riders to the Sea" and "Playboy of the Western World", G.B. Shaw's "John Bull's Other Island, Sean O'Casey's "Juno and the Paycock", Brendan Behan's "The Quare Fellow", Samuel Beckett's "Krapp's Last Tape", and "Translations" by Brian Friel. Texts are fully annotated with explanatory notes on Anglo-Irish usage, place names, historical figures and literary allusions. Backgrounds, criticism, memoirs, prefaces, chronology and bibliography are also included. Hope this helped!!

good but needs updating
An excellent teaching texts for the pre-1960 years, but badly needs updating with a few more contemporary plays, at least one of which should be by a woman dramatist.

A great text to teach from!
This is one of the only comprehensive texts for teaching the history of Irish drama on the market today. There should be a collection of contemporary Irish plays this good. Oh, and thank you to the reader below for the table of contents! One correction, however: "Cathleen Ni Houlihan" and "On Baile's Strand" are both Yeats plays... there is no playwright Cathleen Ni Houlihan. She's a symbol for a free and romanticized Ireland.