Irony and Irishness: Deconstructing the Home on the Contemporary Irish Stage Amanda Mary-Anne Clarke Department of English McGill University, Montreal August 2013 A thesis submitted to McGill University in partial fulfillment of the requirements of the degree of Doctor of Philosophy ©Amanda Mary-Anne Clarke, 2013 Table of Contents Abstract .................................................................................................................... i Résumé................................................................................................................... iii Acknowledgements................................................................................................. v List of Figures ....................................................................................................... vii Introduction: Mapping the Territory.................................................................... 1 Chapter 1: Interrupting the Idyll: J. M. Synge and Sean O’Casey at the Abbey.......................................................................................... 33 Chapter 2: Remapping Memory: Scenographies of Home and Homeland in Brian Friel’s Translations ......................................................... 107 Chapter 3: The Haunted Home: Cultural Memory in Conor McPherson’s The Weir........................................................................................... 163 Chapter 4: Claustrophobic Kitchens: Performing Peasantry in Martin McDonagh’s The Beauty Queen of Leenane ............................ 200 Conclusion: Exporting Kitsch: Ireland and the International Audience....... 240 Works Cited ........................................................................................................ 253 Clarke i Abstract “Irony and Irishness: Deconstructing the Home on the Contemporary Irish Stage” investigates the reconstruction of the Irish home as an emblem of homeland and national identity in the twentieth-century. Considering the work of playwrights from both the Republic and Northern Ireland, I examine how the home, as image of national character and unity, is revised and deconstructed in the 1980s and 1990s to reflect an emergent global identity. I argue that “strangers in the house”—often marginal figures like tramps, women, even ghosts—are used to disrupt and remap the idyllic peasant cottage of Nationalist propaganda. A focus on relationships to the domestic allowed me to unearth and trace an important set of themes in Irish theatre: the geopathology of the home (and domestic set), the post-colonial nature of the tramp, and the reversal of the woman-as-nation topos. This study provides a model for reading irony in Irish theatrical staging, as well as a theoretical framework for examining the geo-politics of national identity. Chapter One, “Interrupting the Idyll,” situates the project by returning to the origins of the home as homeland trope. This section considers the development of the peasant cottage on stage as an anti-colonial symbol and J. M. Synge’s and Sean O’Casey’s refusal of the burgeoning national identity. Synge’s and O’Casey’s presentation of the home as claustrophobic and their celebration of placeless tramps establish a set of ironic conventions for contemporary work. Chapter Two, “Remapping Memory,” investigates Brian Friel’s return to the peasant cottage as a dominant set in the 1980s. During the Troubles, a period of violent sectarian conflict and shifting national borders, Friel gives the peasant Clarke ii cottage a Brechtian treatment—reducing it to the remains of an “image of communion”—its peasant props are “broken” (383) and “forgotten” (383). Friel’s travelling theatre company (Field Day), crossed peace walls and permeated isolated communities to draw together Catholic Nationalist and Protestant Unionist audiences. The assembly of these two groups in repurposed political buildings, such as the Derry Guildhall, proved that communication was possible across sectarian boundaries. Chapter Three, “The Haunted Home,” turns to Ireland’s relationship to cultural memory and tourism in the 1990s. The ghosts of Ireland’s national history turn up as interlopers in Conor McPherson’s uninhabitable Western cottages and kitschy pubs. McPherson’s ghost story monologues resolve this conflict by enacting wake traditions that release the past through performance. Chapter Four, “Claustrophobic Kitchens,” centers on Martin McDonagh’s deliberately inauthentic peasant cottage sets and the fragmentation of Irish identity, as stereotypes of Irishness are trafficked to Irish Diaspora and international audiences. Finally, “Exporting Kitsch,” a concluding examination of recent solo performances by Colm Tóibín and Fiona Shaw, Marie Jones, and Marina Carr, considers how Irishness is embodied, especially how the Irish female body is limited to prescribed roles and spaces on stage. Clarke iii Résumé Cette thèse étudie la construction de la maison irlandaise sur la scène comme un emblème de la patrie et de l’identité nationale dans le xxe siècle. Considérant les travaux des dramaturges de la République et d'Irlande du Nord, j'examine comment la maison, comme l'image du caractère national et de l'unité, est révisée et déconstruite dans les années 1980 et 1990 pour refléter une identité globale émergente. L’étude examine comment les « inconnus » dans la maison (Yeats et Gregory, Cathleen Ni Houlihan, 7) servent à désorganiser et reconfigurer la maison de paysanne idyllique. Le premier chapitre situe le projet en retournant aux origines de la maison paysanne comme une image nationale. Cette section considère le développement de la maison paysanne comme un symbole anticolonial et le refus de l'idyllique identité nationale par J .M. Synge et Sean O’Casey. Synge et O’Casey établissent les conventions ironiques du théâtre irlandais contemporain en présentant une maison claustrophobe et en célébrant les vagabonds. Chapitre deux, porte sur le retour de Friel à la maison paysanne dans les années 1980. Pendant les Troubles en Irlande du Nord, une période de conflits sectaires violents, Friel emploie la mise en scène d’une maison paysanne déconstruite — le reste de l'image de la communion, ses accessoires paysans cassés et oubliés (383). Ce traitement brechtien de la maison déconstruit ironiquement un stéréotype qui continue à séparer les communautés unionistes Protestants et nationalistes Catholiques dans le Nord. Dans le troisième chapitre, je tourne mon attention vers la relation de l'Irlande à la mémoire culturelle et le tourisme durant les années 1990. Les Clarke iv fantômes de l'histoire nationale de l'Irlande se présentent comme des intrus dans les chalets et les pubs kitsch de McPherson. Le chapitre quatre fait le point sur la maison paysanne délibérément inauthentique de Martin McDonagh. La maison et ses habitants sont considérés comme stéréotypes de l’Irlandicité par des auditoires internationaux. Par conséquent de son identité nationale instable, Maureen souffre d'une dépression nerveuse. Clarke v Acknowledgements Without the knowledge and generosity of my supervisors, Sean Carney and Erin Hurley, the completion of this project would not have been possible. Professor Carney introduced me to many of the plays and ideas that make up this dissertation and provided immeasurable support. Professor Hurley’s remarkable insight, energy, and kindness fueled my writing and are a source of personal and professional inspiration. I am grateful to the McGill community more broadly, as well. In the early stages of this project, Miranda Hickman served as an examiner and adviser. Her enthusiasm and her astute questions about gender in the first chapter significantly steered the focus of my later work. During my course work at McGill, I benefitted from Allan Hepburn’s meticulous attention to detail and writing style and Alanna Thain’s ability to bring a sense of adventure to academic work. I am obliged to McGill for providing the funding to travel to Dublin and the National Archives of Ireland for their help tracking down resources. I owe a considerable debt to my undergraduate and master’s professors at the University of Ottawa, without whom I would not have pursued a Ph.D. Professors David Carlson, Donald Childs, Gerald Lynch, Jennifer Panek, and Bernhard Radloff provided a wealth of opportunity for and the tools to pursue further study. My deepest debts are to my friends and family. I extend my thanks to Benjamin Barootes, Ariel Buckley, Laura Cameron, Paula Derdiger, Marc Ducusin, Tom Fish, Simon Lewsen, Brad MacDonald, Alison Pearce, Naben Ruthnum, Jeffrey Weingarten, and Ian Whittington who have provided the Clarke vi intellectual and personal sustenance for this project. I am very fortunate to leave McGill with such a wonderful group of friends. Finally, I would like to thank my father, Greg Clarke, and brother, Chris, for fostering and sharing an interest in literature; my mother, Joanne Paré, for keeping my feet planted firmly on the ground; and my partner, Alan Hui-Bon-Hoa, for his patience, support, and reassurance. Clarke vii List of Figures Fig. 1. Tenniel, John. “Two Forces.” Punch 29 October 1881: 199. Fig. 2. British troops behind barricade in Derry. “Bloody Sunday in Photographs.” The Guardian 15 Jun. 2010. Web. 1 Sep. 2010. <http://www.theguardian.com/uk/gallery/2010/jun/10/>. Fig. 3. Tuach, Rod. Liam Neeson as Doalty and Nuala Hayes as Maire. Translations rehearsal at the Guildhall, Derry. Field Day Review 5 (1980): 31. Fig. 4. The Beauty Queen of Leenane. Dir. Garry Hynes. Sydney