Ancient Greek Tragedy and Irish Epic in Modern Irish
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MEMORABLE BARBARITIES AND NATIONAL MYTHS: ANCIENT GREEK TRAGEDY AND IRISH EPIC IN MODERN IRISH THEATRE A Dissertation Submitted to the Graduate School of the University of Notre Dame in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy by Katherine Anne Hennessey, B.A., M.A. ____________________________ Dr. Susan Cannon Harris, Director Graduate Program in English Notre Dame, Indiana March 2008 MEMORABLE BARBARITIES AND NATIONAL MYTHS: ANCIENT GREEK TRAGEDY AND IRISH EPIC IN MODERN IRISH THEATRE Abstract by Katherine Anne Hennessey Over the course of the 20th century, Irish playwrights penned scores of adaptations of Greek tragedy and Irish epic, and this theatrical phenomenon continues to flourish in the 21st century. My dissertation examines the performance history of such adaptations at Dublin’s two flagship theatres: the Abbey, founded in 1904 by W.B. Yeats and Lady Gregory, and the Gate, established in 1928 by Micheál Mac Liammóir and Hilton Edwards. I argue that the potent rivalry between these two theatres is most acutely manifest in their production of these plays, and that in fact these adaptations of ancient literature constitute a “disputed territory” upon which each theatre stakes a claim of artistic and aesthetic preeminence. Partially because of its long-standing claim to the title of Ireland’s “National Theatre,” the Abbey has been the subject of the preponderance of scholarly criticism about the history of Irish theatre, while the Gate has received comparatively scarce academic attention. I contend, however, that the history of the Abbey--and of modern Irish theatre as a whole--cannot be properly understood except in relation to the strikingly different aesthetics practiced at the Gate. Katherine Anne Hennessey Unlike Yeats and Gregory, MacLiammóir and Edwards brought extensive professional expertise to their theatre, in which a panoply of color, gesture, music, lighting, artistic and technical design worked in tandem with the spoken word to create the performance’s meaning. Their range of technical and artistic genius allowed them to stage ancient literature with lyric passion and cutting-edge visual effects—“memorable barbarities,” in MacLiammóir’s words. The Gate’s achievements radically reinvented Dublin theatregoers’ understanding and expectations of theatrical performance, thereby recharting the entire trajectory of modern Irish drama. This study examines productions of ancient Greek and Irish adaptations at the Abbey and the Gate from the beginning of the 20th century through 2006. Utilizing a dual theoretical framework of performance studies and adaptation theory, my study complements close textual analysis with detailed examination of both theatres’ archival materials, including playbills, publicity, critical reviews, and visual images of the performances in photographs and video recordings. For my grandmother, Catherine Ludwick, whose open mind, insatiable curiosity and joie de vivre continue to inspire admiration and love. ii TABLE OF CONTENTS Acknowledgements...........................................................................................................iv Introduction........................................................................................................................1 Chapter 1: “At Once the White Flame and the Red”: Ancient Greek and Irish Tragedies at the ILT and the Abbey, 1900-1929................................................................................16 Chapter 2: “A Memorable Barbarity on the Stage”: The Dublin Gate Dramatizations of Ancient Greek and Irish Tragedy, 1928-1955...............................................................65 Chapter 3: “A Fevered Sense of Place”: Ancient Irish Epic at the Abbey Theatre, 1947-1994........................................................................................................................116 Chapter 4: “She’s a Trojan”: Greek Tragedy and the Performance of National Identity at the Gate and Abbey, 1986-2003..................................................................................169 Chapter 5: “If not for inspiration, then at least for a sense of location”: Ancient Greek and Irish Adaptations at the Abbey and the Gate, 2004-present......................................211 Conclusion......................................................................................................................258 Appendix.........................................................................................................................267 Bibliography...................................................................................................................275 iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I acknowledge with deep gratitude the support and encouragement of my family, friends, and colleagues throughout the long process of researching and writing this dissertation. The Graduate School, the Graduate Student Union, and the English Department of the University of Notre Dame all furnished crucial material support for this research in the forms of travel grants and fellowships. Mr. Paul Tobin and Notre Dame’s Nanovic Institute for European Studies provided generous financial backing for my final year of research and writing, and the Beinecke Scholarship Program supplied me their liberal support throughout my entire graduate career. Ms. Mairead Delaney of the Abbey Theatre Archive in Dublin consistently and readily transcended the call of duty to assist me in locating performance videos and press clippings, and Mr. Russell Maylone of the Gate Theatre Archive at Northwestern’s Deering Library in Evanston, IL, greatly facilitated my access to that fascinating collection. Dr. Kevin Whelan and Ms. Lisa Caulfield graciously extended the hospitality of Notre Dame’s O’Connell House to me on my numerous research trips to Dublin. The Christian Brothers of Bethlehem University in Palestine have opened their library to me over the past months as I have been preparing the final manuscript of my dissertation, and the awe-inspiring work that they do has reminded me why I went to graduate school in the first place. Heartfelt thanks to the members of my dissertation committee, Drs. Susan Cannon Harris, Mary Burgess-Smyth, Seamus Deane, and Luke Gibbons, for the splendid iv example of their scholarship, and for the time and intellectual energy that they have devoted to this study. They have generously shared their insights, suggestions, and constructive criticism, all of which have been unfailingly penetrating and helpful. Whatever merits this study may possess testify to their commendable talents as teachers; the flaws that undoubtedly remain are solely my responsibility. A thousand and one additional thanks to Dr. Harris for the latitude she has allowed me in keeping not only this research project but also my entire graduate career in harmony with my most cherished priorities and interests, however unconventional. My father Timothy Hennessey, whose pride in his family’s heritage inspired my interest in Irish literature, my mother Carol, my brother Tim, and my sister Elizabeth, have all been abidingly loving and supportive. Steve and Anne Steinbeiser and their entire extended family have moved and refreshed me with a constant stream of fervent prayers and enthusiastic endorsement. I am deeply honored to now call their family my own. The wry optimism and effervescent laughter of my fellow graduate students at Notre Dame, especially Julianne Bruneau and Somdutta Roy, have made everything more enjoyable (even dissertation writing). And last but absolutely not least, my husband Stephen Steinbeiser has been my staunchest advocate through these long years of writing and research. He has cheerfully adopted my interests in Irish theatre, proofread innumerable drafts, and restored my confidence and enthusiasm whenever I felt overwhelmed or unsure of how to proceed. His perceptions and insights have been invaluable, and his love and his faith in me unwavering. I could not have done this without him. v INTRODUCTION MEMORABLE BARBARITIES AND NATIONAL MYTHS: ANCIENT GREEK TRAGEDY AND IRISH EPIC IN MODERN IRISH THEATRE Storytelling is always the art of repeating stories. --Walter Benjamin, Illuminations Antigone proclaims her unwavering love for her dead brother while video footage of Palestinian children throwing rocks at Israeli tanks flashes upon enormous screens behind her. Medea squats upon a piece of bogland in the Irish Midlands, fiercely resisting her estranged husband’s attempts to secure farmland, wealth, and position in the nearby village. Óisín, last of the ancient Irish warrior heroes, wakes from a drunken stupor in a seedy Dublin hotel to discover that the golden-haired goddess who seduced him at the dance club the previous night has absconded with his wallet and his passport.1 These images have more in common than might appear at first glance. Each was created as part of a work of theatre, physically enacted and embodied upon a stage in the presence of an audience. Although these images themselves are quite recent (all appeared on stage within the last decade) each of the plays in which they feature takes as its basis an ancient plotline: Greek tragedy in the first two cases, Irish epic in the last. Yet each play also freely adapts its source materials, adding allusions to contemporary 1 Respectively, these images hail from Conall Morrison’s Antigone (2000), Marina Carr’s By the Bog of Cats (1998), and Paul Mercier’s Homeland (2006). 1 social conflicts, be they domestic or international.