Gender and Sexuality in Modern and Contemporary Irish Drama

This course explores the ways theatre in Ireland has recorded, addressed and inspired significant changes in perceptions of gender and sexuality in Ireland since 1900. We will consider how particular social and political events, such as the repealing of the law banishing abortion in 2018; the decriminalization of homosexuality in the 1980s, the gender restrictions embedded in the Irish constitution in the 1930s, the movement toward women’s suffrage in the 1910s, and other events have influenced the kinds of theatre work being created in Ireland, and that work’s impact both in Ireland and internationally.  We are focusing on Ireland to 1)get a sense of Irish theatre history and its relationship to the construction and perception of the Irish nation-state and  2) see how Irish performance is in conversation with other feminist and queer theatre movements in other locations and traditions. 

We will read one or two plays and several critical, historical and/or theoretical essays every week.

Playwrights and artists considered include, Oscar Wilde, Lady Gregory, Constance Markievicz, Teresa Deevy, the Charabanc Theatre Company, Emma Donoghue, Tom Kilroy, Panti Bliss and more!