The “Hibernicising” of George Farquhar’s Plays after Irish Independence

Abstract

Since the establishment of the Irish Free State in 1922, theatres and theatre companies in the twenty-six counties have had an uneasy relationship with the work of Derry-born playwright George Farquhar. This is presumably because Farquhar’s fervent loyalty to the English crown and his “unenlightened” views on religious tolerance – including the frankly sectarian treatment of Catholicism in his later plays – do not sit well with theatremakers who want to rebrand him as a narrowly and uncomplicatedly Irish playwright. While some post-independence productions of Farquhar have subtly and cleverly exploited Irish elements already present in his scripts, most have crudely imposed Irish elements onto his work. Farquhar is, of course, not the only playwright from the distinguished line of England-based, Irish Anglican dramatists to have had his England-set works “Hibernicised” in this way; works by Oliver Goldsmith, Richard Brinsley Sheridan, Oscar Wilde, and Bernard Shaw have all suffered a similar fate in the Irish Free State and Irish Republic since 1922. However, Farquhar has been subjected to this “Hibernicising” process significantly more than any other playwright from the august Irish Anglican dramatic tradition. And, as this article demonstrates, a reluctance to fully engage with Farquhar’s Irish/British hybridity and his views on religion is a key feature of most productions of the playwright’s work in the twenty-six counties since independence. This is, of course, an insult to a man who – according to legend – was inside the walls during the Siege of Derry, who fought for King Billy at the Battle of the Boyne, and whose childhood home (his father’s parsonage) was burned to the ground by Catholic rebels.