Irish Theatrical Celebrity and the Critical Subjugation of Difference in the Work of Frank McGuinness

Abstract

Frank McGuinness is one of the most successful Irish playwrights of his generation, yet little critical attention had been paid to what seems to be the unique and most challenging aspect of his writing: his di verse representations of gender and sexuality. McGuinness' plays fit neatly into the Irish theatrical tradition in their comparable narrative choices and their traditional literary techniques; however, his work most radically diverges from the drama of his predecessors in the distinctive and diverse ways he approaches character development through thematic narrative. Where other Irish playwrights have engaged topics ranging from politics to psychology, none have dealt with issues of gender diversity and sexual "deviance" as consistently as McGuinness. In a unique way, McGuinness communicates theatrical narratives employing the traditional conventions of the Irish stage, representing stories set in the much-cherished location of the Irish country kitchen, as in Dolly West's Kitchen (1999), or traditional family-based drama of The Bird Sanctuary (1994). But in an interesting twist, he includes and often conveys these narratives from the perspective of individual types never so fully or continually represented on the Irish stage: homosexuals.