The Golden Thread: Irish Women Playwrights, Volume 2 (1992-2016)

Sold as a multi-volume set – the individual volumes are also available for purchase. This two-volume edited collection illuminates the valuable counter-canon of Irish women’s playwriting with forty-two essays written by leading and emerging Irish theatre scholars and practitioners. Covering three hundred years of Irish theatre history from 1716 to 2016, it is the most comprehensive study of plays written by Irish women to date. These short essays provide both a valuable introduction and innovative analysis of key playtexts, bringing renewed attention to scripts and writers that continue to be under-represented in theatre criticism and performance. Volume Two contains chapters focused on plays by sixteen Irish women playwrights produced between 1992 and 2016, highlighting the explosion of new work by contemporary writers. The plays in this volume explore women’s experiences at the intersections of class, sexuality, disability, and ethnicity, pushing at the boundaries of how we define not only Irish theatre, but Irish identity more broadly. CONTRIBUTORS: Nelson Barre, Mary Burke, David Clare, Shonagh Hill, *Mária Kurdi, **José Lanters, **Fiona McDonagh, Dorothy Morrissey, Justine Nakase, Brian Ó Conchubhair, Brenda O'Connell, Shane O'Neill, Graham Price, **Siobhán Purcell, *Carole Quigley, Sarah Jane Scaife, Melissa Sihra, Clare Wallace **

Table of Contents:
Introduction David Clare, Fiona McDonagh & Justine Nakase Marie Jones’s Don’t Look Down (1992): Representations of Disability for Young Audiences Fiona McDonagh Lesbianism and Legibility in Emma Donoghue’s I Know My Own Heart (1993) Shonagh Hill Learning to Play Poker: The Re-vision of Irish Women’s Agency in Gina Moxley’s Danti-Dan (1995) Nelson Barre Directing Marina Carr’s By the Bog of Cats… (1998) in China Sarah Jane Scaife Ursula Rani Sarma’s Blue (2000) and Social Transformation in Ireland Shane O’Neill Challenging “Good Taste”: Roslaeen McDonagh’s The Baby Doll Project (2003) and the Creation of a “Traveller Canon” Mary Burke Disordered States and Affective Economies in Stella Feehily’s O Go My Man (2006) Clare Wallace Living in a Rape Culture: Gang Rape and “Toxic Masculinity” in Abbie Spallen’s Pumpgirl (2006) Carole Quigley Marina Carr’s Woman and Scarecrow (2006) and the Ars Moriendi José Lanters Lizzie Nunnery’s Intemperance (2007) and Compromised Mental Health among the Irish in Britain David Clare Memory, History, and Forgetting in Anne Devlin’s The Forgotten (2009) Graham Price “We are here, we were here all along”: Queer Invisibility and Performing Age in Amy Conroy’s I (Heart) Alice (Heart) I (2010) Brenda O’Connell Motherhood and the Search for Recognition in Deirdre Kinahan’s Moment (2011) Dorothy Morrissey “Unrealing the Real”: Disability and Darwinism in Lynda Radley’s Futureproof (2011) Siobhán Purcell Family Dysfunction and Character Dynamics: Nancy Harris’s Our New Girl (2012) in Conversation with Marina Carr’s Portia Coughlin (1996) and Martin Crimp’s The Country (2000) Mária Kurdi Unconscious Casting: Stacey Gregg’s Shibboleth (2015), Walls, and the (En)Gendering of Violence Justine Nakase Nevertheless, She Persisted: Celia de Fréine’s Luíse (2016) Brian Ó Conchubhair Coda – Spinning Gold: Threads of Augusta Gregory and Marina Carr Melissa Sihra

About the Author :
David Clare is Lecturer in Drama and Theatre Studies at Mary Immaculate College, University of Limerick. Fiona McDonagh is Lecturer in Drama and Theatre Studies at Mary Immaculate College, University of Limerick. Justine Nakase is Adjunct Lecturer at Portland State University.

Review :
'In a word, The Golden Thread: Irish Women Playwrights, 1716–2016... is superb. This two-volume collection showcases writers familiar and less familiar, offers valuable context and incisive textual readings, attends to performance as well as stagecraft, and ranges among historical periods and critical approaches.' Prof. Paige Reynolds, English Studies ‘The Golden Thread is an ambitious, richly textured and multifaceted research piece that opens up the field of Irish theatre studies in most fruitful ways. It offers a robust counteracting to the under-representation of Irish women playwrights in the canon and is a strong incentive for producers to revive their work… a most valuable book for anyone interested in Irish studies, in Irish theatre studies and also for anyone interested in an alternative history of Irish theatre.’ Hélène Lecossois, Études irlandaises ‘This is one of those indispensable works that will influence the future of performance studies and feminist criticism. The number and variety of voices on display, the effort in the reconstruction of the canon by adding women playwrights who had been erased in the past, and the declared ambition to draw attention to and create the conditions for revivals and publications of plays created by contemporary women playwrights make this extensive compilation more than recommendable... All in all, a very enjoyable edition, which makes for a rewarding read and provides essential information.’ María Gaviña-Costero, Estudios Irlandeses ‘Spanning from the eighteenth-century to the present day, The Golden Thread brings together the work of leading scholars in Irish theatre and women’s writing with that of theatre practitioners to recover the often-hidden contributions of women playwrights. The collection develops a counter-canon of Irish playwrights that examines issues of class, sexuality, and disability.’ Colleen English, The New Books Network