Death and Identity in the Plays of Frank Mcguinness

I declare that this dissertation is wholly my own work except where I have made explicit reference to the work of others. I have discussed, agreed and complied with whatever confidentiality or anonymity terms of reference were deemed appropriate by those participating in the research. Johnny E. Burton I agree that I am free to publish the work in its present or future versions elsewhere. I agree that WIT may store, copy or translate the work to any medium or format for the purpose of future preservation and accessibility. I understand that I retain the Intellectual Property rights awarded to me as author of the thesis, and that copyright regulations apply to my deposited work. Johnny E. Burton From Trauma to Transformation: Death and Identity in the Plays of Frank McGuinness Johnny E. Burton, BA Submitted for the Degree of Master of Arts Waterford Institute of Technology Supervised by Dr. Úna Kealy Submitted to Waterford Institute of Technology, September 2009. Thesis Title: From Trauma to Transformation: Death and Identity in the Plays of Frank McGuinness Thesis Author: Johnny E. Burton Abstract: This thesis is a consideration of the representations of death in six of Frank McGuinness’s original dramatic works. The objective is to evaluate the connection between these dramatic representations and the social, political and cultural contexts of the plays’ first performances. The main contention is that the connection between these representations and their contexts serves to deepen an understanding of both. While McGuinness has produced original plays since 1982, the plays considered cover the period from 1985 to 1999. His plays are complex responses to the conditions of contemporary Ireland, particularly the conflict in Northern Ireland. By looking at these conditions through a variety of perspectives, particularly those of “outsiders,” the plays emphasise the need for the acceptance of a broad understanding of identity. These characters articulate their perspectives most clearly in their confrontation with the possibility and reality of death. In these plays, the characters confront death during periods of conflict from Irish and world history. Facing the dangers of these conflicts, the characters confront the possibility and reality of death collectively, guided and encouraged, for the most part, by “outsider” characters. Their collective bonds allow them to better deal with death’s complex, paradoxical power. The thesis has three main body chapters, each of which concentrates on two of McGuinness’s plays. Chapter One considers the connection between death and community, and concentrates on the paradox within the demands of both community and individual identity. Chapter Two examines the connection between death and constructions of “Otherness” and focuses on how definitions of Otherness both defend and jeopardise the individual in relation to their Others. Chapter Three explores the connection between death and family relations and looks at how individuals might escape a damaging, haunting legacy by embracing a wider, more inclusive perspective. 2 Introduction: Sites of Paradox Death is ubiquitous in Frank McGuinness’s works. There are few among them that do not explore the threat, reality or memory of death. The following consideration of six of his original stage plays concentrates on his representations of death and their relation to issues of identity. Although McGuinness has been prolific in his career as a writer, with more than twenty original dramatic works, more than twenty translations and adaptations of European and South American classic works, four books of poetry, as well as a number of screenplays and short stories, this thesis is not a survey of his career, but examines the theme of death in detail in a relatively small but nonetheless important selection of his original plays. The plays selected for consideration are Observe the Sons of Ulster Marching Towards the Somme (1985),1 Carthaginians (1988), Someone Who’ll Watch Over Me (1992), The Bird Sanctuary (1994), Mutabilitie (1997) and Dolly West’s Kitchen (1999). This selection encompasses a wide range of his original dramatic works in regards to both chronology and popularity. Regarding chronology, the selection covers a period of about fifteen years of his nearly three decades as a dramatist. Regarding popularity, the first three plays mentioned have each garnered a large amount of deserved attention, while critics have relatively ignored the latter three. All six plays, as well as many of those excluded from this study, share to varying degrees the themes explored in this thesis; however, these themes are particularly evident in the plays paired in each chapter. There are three main arguments at the basis of this consideration. The first is that death is an evasive, complex sign that pushes the limits of not only representation, but also interpretation. Death, whether as death of the self or of someone other than the self, can both challenge and confirm issues of identity from the specific, such as the issue of loyalty for Northern Irish Unionists, to the universal, such as the general issue of mortality. Death’s agency and power lies, in part, in how survivors, those who experience death either by proxy or as immediate possibility, choose to interpret it. 1 The years given in parentheses for all plays referred to in this thesis will be the year of their first productions. Any references taken from the plays will refer to the published texts, unless otherwise indicated. 3 The second argument is that there is a perceivable movement in McGuinness’s use of death from the early to later plays. In the early plays, which include Observe the Sons of Ulster and Carthaginians, the experience of death is, for the most part, traumatic, causing a lasting negative impact that generally damages the lives of survivors, manifesting in varying forms of social and / or emotional debilitation. In the later plays, particularly The Bird Sanctuary and Dolly West’s Kitchen, the experience of death is more transformative, signalling a significant and generally positive change in the survivors. While in all six plays experiences of death have elements of both trauma and transformation, those in Someone Who’ll Watch Over Me and Mutabilitie evince a balance of both. These categorisations are not to suggest that his early works have an overall grave tone or that his later works are exceptionally optimistic; rather, these categorisations relate specifically to the characters’ responses to death. The third argument is that there are often clearly discernable connections between the plays and the contexts of their first performances. As Aston and Savona (1991) suggest, “[t]heatre establishes its network of codified sign-systems by virtue of the cultural codes which govern behaviour, speech, dress, make-up, etc., in society at large” (p. 111). It follows, then, that an effective reading of these plays requires an understanding of the various codes McGuinness uses in them, such as, in the case of Observe the Sons of Ulster and Carthaginians respectively, the codes employed by Northern Irish Unionists or Nationalists to reveal their particular allegiances. In the following chapters, this thesis will, to use Aston and Savona’s phrase, “‘read’ the theatrical in terms of the social” (ibid., p. 153). However, given the dynamic of the interaction between the world of the play and the real world, this thesis concentrates on the influence of the real world on the plays as opposed to the historical or political affect of the play in the real world. The selection of drama is not merely an act of preference. Drama is the most dynamic of art forms, at times employing artistic and cultural codes that require all five senses, which allows for a wider breadth of reference than merely textual, visual, auditory or tactile art. The combinations of these codes are practically 4 unlimited, and each dramatic performance structures them in a unique way.2 The audience understands information in the dramatic presentation through foreknowledge of these codes, which may be anything from the dramatic codes that classify genres to the cultural and linguistic codes of a particular locality in tandem with those that arise from the unique interactions that occur during each performance. This immediate multi-sensory involvement of the audience opens up dialogue between not only stage and audience, but also between individual audience members. This dialogue may allow a change of perspective in the audience, it might be met with indifference, or it might be met with protest as is particularly evident in plays with content that challenges accepted socio-cultural norms. This latter point is particularly clear in the case of The Playboy of the Western World (1907) by John Millington Synge, which met with protest and riots during its first performances, apparently due to its complex denial of patriarchal power coupled with a certain reference to women’s undergarments (Morash 2002, pp. 130-8). The following study is an attempt to outline and analyse the various codes used by McGuinness to represent his characters’ responses to the threat and reality of death. There are, however, certain limitations and difficulties within the following analysis. Aston and Savona (1991) suggest that the fact that no two performances are ever the same presents a peculiar difficulty for the student of theatre, one that students of poetry or other relatively static arts do not encounter (p. 108). The text of a play is a stable entity: barring accidents, the words one reads at one sitting, one reads at another. For the production team of a theatrical performance, the text may be a mere guideline. All members of the team can bring their respective interpretations and suggestions as to how to translate the text to the stage. Once the team has settled on a particular interpretation and completed rehearsals, each performance becomes subject to sometimes-subtle, sometimes-obvious accidents that may augment the interpretation.

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