This collection of fourteen new essays explores Irish theatre from exciting new perspectives. How has Irish theatre been received internationally - and, as the country becomes more multicultural, how will international theatre influence the development of drama in Ireland? As Ireland changes, how should we think about the works of familiar figures - writers like Synge, O'Casey, Friel, Murphy, Carr, and McGuinness? Is the distinction between popular and literary drama tenable in a Celtic Tiger Ireland where the arts and economics are becoming increasingly intertwined? And is it time to remember less established Irish writers? Drawing together a range of international experts, this book aims to answer these and many other important questions.

Patrick Lonergan lectures in English at National University of Ireland, Galway, and is an Ireland Representative for the International Association for the Study of Irish Literature. He writes about theatre in the west of Ireland for The Irish Times, and is reviews editor of irish theatre magazine. He has lectured on Irish drama at a variety of venues, including the Edinburgh International Festival, the Royal Irish Academy, and the Notre Dame Irish Seminar. He is currently working on a book on Irish Theatre and Globalization. Riana O'Dwyer is Senior Lecturer in the English Department at National University of Ireland, Galway. She has been Chairperson of the International Association for the Study of Irish Literatures [IASIL] since 2003 and was one of the organizers of IASIL Triennial Conference 2004 at Galway. She has lectured and published on Joyce, modern Irish drama, Irish studies, and Irish women novelists of the nineteenth century.

CONTENTS: Christopher Murray: «Echoes Down the Corridor»: The Abbey Theatre 1904-2004 – Mary C. King: A Synge for Our Times? Yeats’s enquiring man revisited – Joan FitzPatrick Dean: Staging the Aesthetic: The Vagrant Artists of Padraic Colum and Seumas O’Kelly – Chiaki Kojima: Shoyo Matsui, A Japanese Lennox Robinson: The Irish National Theatre and Japanese New Drama – Irina Ruppo: Wessex to Geesala: Hardy and Synge – Paul O’Brien: Sean O’Casey and The Abbey Theatre: A Conflicted Relationship – Helen Lojek: : Historical Stages – Christa Velten-Mrowka: «Am I a con man?»: Brian Friel’s idea of the self-reflective artist, viewed in the light of Adorno’s aesthetic theory – Alexandra Poulain: «A Voice and little else»: talking, writing and singing in – Mária Kurdi: Spatializing the Renewal of Female Subjectivity in Marie Jones’s – Donal E. Morse: The Present through the Prism of the Past: Frank McGuinness’s – Mika Funahashi: «Grow a Mermaid»: A Subtext for Marina Carr's Dramatic Works – Jason King: Beyond Ryanga: The Image of Africa in Contemporary Irish Theatre – Lisa Fitzpatrick: Nation and Myth in the Age of the Celtic Tiger: Muide Éire?