The Theatre of Nation: Irish Drama and Cultural Nationalism 1890-1916 by Ben Levitas, and: Theatre and the State in Twentieth-Century Ireland: Cultivating the People by Lionel Pilkington, and: A History of the Irish Theatre 1601-2000 by Christopher Morash (review)

Abstract

YES, 35, 2005 325 Royal'. Burke'sstated aim is 'to focus on selective "riotousperformances"[...] and show that they are intelligiblewithin non-hegemonic political, social, and cultural frameworks'. With the exception of Thomas Sheridan'spamphlets, records directlypertinent to the theatrical events that Burke examines in much of the book are rare and fragmentary.Beginningwith the Tamerlane riot of 1712and ending with the firstIrish Stage Act of 1786,which establisheda monopoly for 'legitimate'theatrein Dublin, Burke uses, often for the first time in this context, imaginative readings of a wide range of writingsand songs of the period- plays, pamphlet prose, and poetry as the evidentiarybasis for much of her analysis. Other early chapters of the book discussJonathan Swift's 'patriotcampaign' in the I720Sand '3os and the wearing of Irish 'stuff in the theatresduring the period and the singingof Irish,sometimesJacobite, songs as a part of theatreprogrammes. The most importantand controversialcontributionsof thisvery originalbook are the centralchaptersdealingwith the Kelly riot of 1745,the subsequent'Gentlemen's Quarrel' that evolved into the 'Lucasian'stage controversyof 1748,which culminated in the Mahomet riots of I754. Building on and revising suggestionsmade by Jacqueline Hill in her book on Dublin civic politics and Sean Murphy in his biographical work on Charles Lucas, Burke analyses the period of Thomas Sheridan'smanagement of Smock Alley Theatre and views the series of riots and disruptionsas the work of a native Irishgentry 'counterculture'and the reaction of Lucas and his supporters to a perceived decadence of the Court hegemony in Ireland. The I754Mahomet riots, Burke argues, took their meaning 'from a kind of multivoiced Irish anticolonial theatre'. By this time, the fractiousDublin audience 'was beginning to stand for the whole people of Ireland'. While it will be argued that she fails to give due consideration to alternative explanations for some of these 'riotous performances', the mere fact that Helen Burkehas unearthedso much that is new and given us such a differentperspective on these events makes the book essentialreading. UNIVERSITY OF LOUISIANALAFAYETTE JOHN GREENE The Theatreof Nation: IrishDrama and CulturalNationalismi89o-I916. By BENLEVITAS. (OxfordHistoricalMonographs)Oxford: Clarendon Press.2002. 265 pp. /35. ISBN:0-19-925343-9. Theatreand the Statein Twentieth-Century Ireland:Cultivating the People.By LIONEL PILKINGTON. London and New York: Routledge. 2001. x + 262 pp. f22.99. ISBN:0-415-06939-4. A Historyof theIrish TheatreI60o-2000. By CHRISTOPHER MORASH.Cambridge, New York, Melbourne: Cambridge University Press. 2002. xx + 322 pp. 40o; $6o (pbk CI6.99; $24). ISBN: 0-521-64117-9(pbk0-521-64682-0). Any possibility of unproblematic association between theatre and state in Ireland dissolvesinto vertiginouscomplexitieswherein definitionsof the state and its legitimacy are vigorouslycontested. From 1169Britain'sbarons began occupying Gaelic Ireland, setting a pattern for domination. Religion became a major ideological factor after the Reformation. It continues to subsume 'the Northern Ireland situation'underbinary-ismsof ProtestantUnionism versusCatholic Republicanism. YES, 35, 2005 325 Royal'. Burke'sstated aim is 'to focus on selective "riotousperformances"[...] and show that they are intelligiblewithin non-hegemonic political, social, and cultural frameworks'. With the exception of Thomas Sheridan'spamphlets, records directlypertinent to the theatrical events that Burke examines in much of the book are rare and fragmentary.Beginningwith the Tamerlane riot of 1712and ending with the firstIrish Stage Act of 1786,which establisheda monopoly for 'legitimate'theatrein Dublin, Burke uses, often for the first time in this context, imaginative readings of a wide range of writingsand songs of the period- plays, pamphlet prose, and poetry as the evidentiarybasis for much of her analysis. Other early chapters of the book discussJonathan Swift's 'patriotcampaign' in the I720Sand '3os and the wearing of Irish 'stuff in the theatresduring the period and the singingof Irish,sometimesJacobite, songs as a part of theatreprogrammes. The most importantand controversialcontributionsof thisvery originalbook are the centralchaptersdealingwith the Kelly riot of 1745,the subsequent'Gentlemen's Quarrel' that evolved into the 'Lucasian'stage controversyof 1748,which culminated in the Mahomet riots of I754. Building on and revising suggestionsmade by Jacqueline Hill in her book on Dublin civic politics and Sean Murphy in his biographical work on Charles Lucas, Burke analyses the period of Thomas Sheridan'smanagement of Smock Alley Theatre and views the series of riots and disruptionsas the work of a native Irishgentry...