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“Theatre Matters”: Discovering the True Self in Terrence McNally’s Dedication

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Published/Copyright: November 1, 2013
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Journal of Contemporary Drama in English
From the journal Journal of Contemporary Drama in English Volume 1 Issue 2

Abstract

In Dedication, or The Stuff of Dreams Terrence McNally explores the conundrum of the actor who uses theater to hide from, rather than explore, his real or true self. Theater’s ability to stimulate the imagination collides with fantasy’s seductive ability to narcotize pain as Lou Nuncle attempts to secure the use of a dilapidated, long shuttered, nineteenth century theater building from its owner, a crabbed, aged millionairess suffering from inoperable cancer. By paraphrasing in the play’s title the penultimate lines of Prospero’s farewell to the revels in Shakespeare’s The Tempest, McNally posits Lou and Mrs. Willard as differing types of the Renaissance magus who, like Prospero, must eschew bitterness regarding the disappointments that each has suffered and mount a theatrical production that transforms actors and audience alike.

About the author

Raymond-Jean Frontain

Works Cited

McNally, Terrence. And Things That Go Bump in the Night. Collected Plays, Vol. II. Lyme, NH: Smith and Kraus, 1996. 1–78.Search in Google Scholar

—. Corpus Christi. New York: Grove, 1998.Search in Google Scholar

—. Dedication or The Stuff of Dreams. New York: Grove, 2006.Search in Google Scholar

—. A Man of No Importance: A New Musical. New York: Stage and Screen, 2003.Search in Google Scholar

—. Master Class. New York: Penguin/Plume, 1995.Search in Google Scholar

—. A Perfect Ganesh. New York: Fireside Theatre, 1993.Search in Google Scholar

—. Untitled Play. Unpublished Typescript. Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center, University of Texas at Austin. McNally Archive 58.1.Search in Google Scholar

Shakespeare, William. The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark. The Norton Shakespeare. Ed. Stephen Greenblatt et al. Second ed. New York: Norton, 2008. 1683–1784.Search in Google Scholar

—. The Tempest. The Norton Shakespeare. Ed. Stephen Greenblatt et al. Second ed. New York: Norton, 2008. 3055–3116.Search in Google Scholar

Secondary Literature

McNally, Terrence. “Where Are You, Producers?” Unpublished Typescript. Address to Members of the League of American Theatres and Producers. Toronto, Ontario, October 1991. Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center, University of Texas at Austin. McNally Archive 58.5.Search in Google Scholar

Shapiro, Eddie. “Gay for Play: Prolific Dramatist Terrence McNally Riffs on Queer Theater.” Out (Oct. 2005): 64.Search in Google Scholar

Published Online: 2013-11-01
Published in Print: 2013-11-01

© 2013 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston

Articles in the same Issue

  1. Masthead
  2. What Narrative? What Dissent?: Refractive Visions of India in M. Duras’s India Song and M. Padmanabhan’s Harvest
  3. The Political with a Small p: A Re-evaluation of Brian Friel’s The Freedom of the City
  4. ‘Gar O’Donnell and the Philadelphia’: Traditional Song and ‘The Irish Showband’ in Brian Friel’s Philadelphia, Here I Come! (1964)
  5. Non-Productive Expenditure and Sam Shepard’s States of Shock: A Performance of Waste
  6. Sarah Kane’s Blasted – Genesis of the Subject
  7. “Theatre Matters”: Discovering the True Self in Terrence McNally’s Dedication
  8. Asyntactic Contact with Fleshless Words: Con/tactile Aesth/Ethics in The Castle
  9. Wendy Aarons & Theresa J. May(eds.).Readings in Performance and Ecology. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2012, 256 pp., $59.49.
  10. Chris Megson. Modern British Playwriting: The 1970s. London: Methuen Drama, 2012, xii + 299 pp., $90.00 (hardback), $27.95 (paperback), $26.99 (PDF ebook). Jane Milling. Modern British Playwriting: The 1980s. London: Methuen Drama, 2012, xii + 313 pp., $90.00 (hardback), $27.95 (paperback), $26.99 (PDF ebook). Aleks Sierz. Modern British Playwriting: The 1990s. London: Methuen Drama, 2012. X + 277 pp., $90.00 (hardback), $27.95 (paperback), $26.99 (PDF ebook).
  11. Elaine Aston and Geraldine Harris.A Good Night Out for the Girls: Popular Feminisms in Contemporary Theatre and Performance. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2013, 218 pp.
  12. Ulrike Behlau-Dengler. Zakhor! Remembering the British-Jewish Experience in British-Jewish Drama after 1945, CDE Studies 21, Trier: WVT Wissenschaftlicher Verlag Trier, 2011, 492 pp., € 48.50.
  13. Lilian Chambers & Eamonn Jordan (eds.). The Theatre of Conor McPherson. ‘Right beside the Beyond’. Dublin: Carysfort Press, 2012, 309 pp., € 44.99
  14. Frances Babbage. Re-visioning Myth: Modern and Contemporary Drama by Women. New York: Manchester UP, 2011, x + 261 pp., $85.50.
  15. Victor Merriman. ‘Because we are poor’: Irish Theatre in the 1990s. Dublin: Carysfort Press, 2011, 250 pp., € 20.00.
  16. Wiegmink, Pia. Protest EnACTed: Activist Performance in the Contemporary United States. Heidelberg: Winter, 2011, 434 pp., € 54.00.
  17. Stephen Greer. Contemporary British Queer Performance. Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire: Palgrave Macmillan 2012, 245 pp., £ 47.38.
https://doi.org/10.1515/jcde-2013-0021

Articles in the same Issue

  1. Masthead
  2. What Narrative? What Dissent?: Refractive Visions of India in M. Duras’s India Song and M. Padmanabhan’s Harvest
  3. The Political with a Small p: A Re-evaluation of Brian Friel’s The Freedom of the City
  4. ‘Gar O’Donnell and the Philadelphia’: Traditional Song and ‘The Irish Showband’ in Brian Friel’s Philadelphia, Here I Come! (1964)
  5. Non-Productive Expenditure and Sam Shepard’s States of Shock: A Performance of Waste
  6. Sarah Kane’s Blasted – Genesis of the Subject
  7. “Theatre Matters”: Discovering the True Self in Terrence McNally’s Dedication
  8. Asyntactic Contact with Fleshless Words: Con/tactile Aesth/Ethics in The Castle
  9. Wendy Aarons & Theresa J. May(eds.).Readings in Performance and Ecology. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2012, 256 pp., $59.49.
  10. Chris Megson. Modern British Playwriting: The 1970s. London: Methuen Drama, 2012, xii + 299 pp., $90.00 (hardback), $27.95 (paperback), $26.99 (PDF ebook). Jane Milling. Modern British Playwriting: The 1980s. London: Methuen Drama, 2012, xii + 313 pp., $90.00 (hardback), $27.95 (paperback), $26.99 (PDF ebook). Aleks Sierz. Modern British Playwriting: The 1990s. London: Methuen Drama, 2012. X + 277 pp., $90.00 (hardback), $27.95 (paperback), $26.99 (PDF ebook).
  11. Elaine Aston and Geraldine Harris.A Good Night Out for the Girls: Popular Feminisms in Contemporary Theatre and Performance. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2013, 218 pp.
  12. Ulrike Behlau-Dengler. Zakhor! Remembering the British-Jewish Experience in British-Jewish Drama after 1945, CDE Studies 21, Trier: WVT Wissenschaftlicher Verlag Trier, 2011, 492 pp., € 48.50.
  13. Lilian Chambers & Eamonn Jordan (eds.). The Theatre of Conor McPherson. ‘Right beside the Beyond’. Dublin: Carysfort Press, 2012, 309 pp., € 44.99
  14. Frances Babbage. Re-visioning Myth: Modern and Contemporary Drama by Women. New York: Manchester UP, 2011, x + 261 pp., $85.50.
  15. Victor Merriman. ‘Because we are poor’: Irish Theatre in the 1990s. Dublin: Carysfort Press, 2011, 250 pp., € 20.00.
  16. Wiegmink, Pia. Protest EnACTed: Activist Performance in the Contemporary United States. Heidelberg: Winter, 2011, 434 pp., € 54.00.
  17. Stephen Greer. Contemporary British Queer Performance. Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire: Palgrave Macmillan 2012, 245 pp., £ 47.38.
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