Ireland, Enlightenment and the English Stage, 1740-1820

Cambridge University Press, 8/1/2019
EAN 9781108498142, ISBN10: 1108498140

Hardcover, 282 pages, 23.6 x 16.5 x 1.8 cm
Language: English
Originally published in English

The theatre was a crucial forum for the representation of Irish civility and culture for the eighteenth-century English audience. Irish actors and playwrights, operating both as individuals and within networks, were remarkably popular and potent during this period, especially in London. As ideas of Enlightenment percolated throughout Britain and Ireland, Irish theatrical practitioners - actors, managers, playwrights, critics and journalists - exploited a growing receptivity to Irish civility, and advanced a patriot agenda of political and economic autonomy. Mobility, toleration and the capacity to negotiate multiple allegiances are marked features of this Irish theatrical Enlightenment, whose ambitious participants saw little conflict between their twin loyalties to the Crown and to Ireland. This collection of essays responds to recent work in the areas of eighteenth-century theatre studies, Irish studies and Enlightenment studies. The volume's discussions of genre, colonialism, gender, race, music, slavery, and dress open up new avenues of scholarship and research across disciplines.

Introduction
staging an Irish Enlightenment David O'Shaughnessy
Part I. Representations and Resistance
1. Straddling
London-Irish actresses and their characters Felicity Nussbaum
2. John Johnstone and the possibilities of Irishness, 1783–1820 Jim Davis
3. The diminution of 'Irish' Johnstone Oskar Cox Jensen
Part II. Symbiotic Stages
Dublin and London
4. Midas, Kane O'Hara and the Italians
an interplay of comedy between London and Dublin Michael Burden
5. Trading loyalties
Richard Brinsley Sheridan, The School for Scandal and the Irish propositions Robert W. Jones
6. Sydney Owenson, Alicia Sheridan Le Fanu and the domestic stage of post-inion politics Colleen Taylor
Part III. Enlightened Perspectives
7. Civility, patriotism and performance
Cato and the Irish history play David O'Shaughnessy
8. From Ireland to Peru
Arthur Murphy's (anti)-imperial dramaturgy Bridget Orr
9. The provincial commencement of James Field Stanfield Declan Mccormack
10. Worlding the village
John O'Keeffe's 'Excentric' pastorals Helen Burke.