The crisis and what comes after

Abstract

This chapter explores the significant aesthetic and institutional changes in Irish theater during the post-Celtic Tiger period, paying particular attention to the shift from playwright to “theater-maker” as the primary agent of theatrical creativity in the early twenty-first century. While many contemporary Irish plays continue to address long-standing concerns such as emigration, the Church, national history, and the idea of home, these issues have taken on different resonances in works with female, young, and/or queer points of view. The rise of devised theater, immersive theater, and postmodern aesthetics have all led to a wider array of performance modes, and activism within the theater community has opened new spaces for diversity in voice, identity, and form in Irish performance. This chapter considers all of these changes in relation to the impact of the recession and significant social movements in Ireland since 2008, and identifies key theatrical companies and works that best embody possible futures for Irish theater.