The State We’re in: Violence and Working-Class Women on and off the Contemporary Irish Stage
-
Tom Maguire
Tom Maguire is Head of the School of Arts & Humanities at Ulster University. He teaches on undergraduate and postgraduate programmes and supervises research students in Drama and in Museums and Cultural Heritages. His research engages with the relationships between performance, identity, place and power particularly in Britain and Ireland. He serves on the Peer Review College of the AHRC, on the Board of the International Theatre for Young Audiences Research Network and the Editorial Board for About Performance. He is Chair of the Board of Big Telly Theatre Company
Abstract
This essay examines the ways in which women in the lowest socio-economic class are represented on the contemporary Irish stage. Its central concern is with the ways in which the Naturalistic dramatic representation of the home as a domestic sphere for poor women may confound nationalist discourses of the country as home, yet may fail to resist the systemic violence of the state against its most precarious citizens. To do so I set the actual economic conditions of these precarious women alongside social attitudes to poverty and the poor to demonstrate the systemic violence enacted on the most vulnerable. Turning then to dominant media representations, the essay questions the interaction between representation and reality more generally, whereby Ireland’s poorest are demonised and disenfranchised as figures of fun or fear in forms of representational violence. Against this broader backdrop, the paper identifies recurrent forms of and tropes in stage representations to raise questions about both the form and function of theatre for contemporary spectators, focusing on two contemporary plays Waiting on Ikea and Pineapple. For some, this promotes pleasures of recognition; for others the frisson of class voyeurism. The central argument is that little has changed since O'Casey put Juno Boyle and Bessie Burgess onstage – in either the precarious lives led by poor women, their representation on stage or the failures of the audiences or the state to accept responsibility for the unequal lives of Irish citizens.
About the author
Tom Maguire is Head of the School of Arts & Humanities at Ulster University. He teaches on undergraduate and postgraduate programmes and supervises research students in Drama and in Museums and Cultural Heritages. His research engages with the relationships between performance, identity, place and power particularly in Britain and Ireland. He serves on the Peer Review College of the AHRC, on the Board of the International Theatre for Young Audiences Research Network and the Editorial Board for About Performance. He is Chair of the Board of Big Telly Theatre Company
Works Cited
Anderson, Benedict. Imagined Communities. London: Verso, 1983. Print.Suche in Google Scholar
Aragay, Mireia. “Reading Dermot Bolger’s The Holy Ground: National Identity, Gender and Sexuality in Post-Colonial Ireland.” Links and Letters 4 (1997): 53–64. Print.Suche in Google Scholar
Bartholomew, James. “The Awful Rise of ‘Virtue Signalling.’” Spectator 18 Apr. 2015. Web. <https://www.spectator.co.uk/2015/04/hating-the-daily-mail-is-a-substitute-for-doing-good/>. Accessed 20 Sept. 2017.Suche in Google Scholar
Butler, Judith. “Performativity, Precarity and Sexual Politics.” AIBR. Revista de Antropología Iberoamericana 4.3 (2009): i-xiii. 29 June 2017. Web. <http://www.aibr.org/antropologia/04v03/criticos/040301b.pdf>.10.11156/aibr.040303eSuche in Google Scholar
Butler, Judith, and Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak. Who Sings the Nation-State? Language, Politics, Belonging. London: Seagull Books, 2007. Print.Suche in Google Scholar
Central Statistics Office. Survey on Income and Living Conditions (SILC). 16 April 2014. Web. <http://www.cso.ie/en/media/csoie/releasespublications/documents/silc/2012/silc_2012.pdf>. 20 Sept. 2016.Suche in Google Scholar
Central Statistics Office. Census 2016 Summary Results – Part 1. Web. <http://www.cso.ie/en/csolatestnews/presspages/2017/census2016summaryresults-part1/>. Accessed 20 Sept. 2017.Suche in Google Scholar
Connolly, Linda, ed. The Irish Family. London and New York: Routledge, 2015. Print. Suche in Google Scholar
Crawley, Peter. “The Plough and the Stars Review: The Poverty of Our Era Put Centre Stage.” Irish Times 21 Mar. 2016. Web. <https://www.irishtimes.com/culture/stage/the-plough-and-the-stars-review-the-poverty-of-our-era-put-centre-stage-1.2581659>. Accessed 29 June 2017.Suche in Google Scholar
Crawley, Peter. “Culture Shock: ‘The Plough and the Stars is Back. Must Be Time for a Riot, So.’” Irish Times 18 March 2016. Web. <https://www.irishtimes.com/culture/stage/culture-shock-the-plough-and-the-stars-is-back-must-be-time-for-a-riot-so-1.2578736>. Accessed 29 June 2017.Suche in Google Scholar
Donohue, Brenda, et al.Gender Counts: An Analysis of Gender in Irish Theatre 2006-2015. 2016. Web. <https://www.academia.edu/26007682/Gender_Counts_an_analysis_of_gender_in_Irish_Theatre_2006-2015>. Accessed 29 June 2017. Suche in Google Scholar
European Commission. The Gender Pay Gap in Ireland. 2015. Web. Accessed 20 Sept. 2016.Suche in Google Scholar
Frazier, Adrian. Behind the Scenes: Yeats, Horniman, and the Struggle for the Abbey Theatre. Berkeley: U of California P, 1990. Print.10.1525/9780520311114Suche in Google Scholar
Gray, Jane, and O’Carroll, Aileen. “Education and Class Formation in 20th Century Ireland: a Retrospective Qualitative Longitudinal Analysis.” Sociology 46.4 (2012): 696–711. Print.10.1177/0038038511428750Suche in Google Scholar
Hardiman, Niamh, Anthony McCashin, and Diane Payne. Understanding Irish Attitudes to Poverty and Wealth. ISSC Discussion Paper Series. Dublin: ISSC, 2004. Print.Suche in Google Scholar
Hickey, Willam F. “The Irish in Cleveland: One Perspective.” Irish Americans and Their Communities of Cleveland. Ed. Nelson J. Callahan and William F. Hickey. 2001. Web. <http://www.clevelandmemory.org/irish/tabsam.html>. Accessed 29 June 2017.Suche in Google Scholar
Holdsworth, Nadine. Theatre and Nation. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2010. Print.10.1007/978-1-137-01377-4Suche in Google Scholar
Irish Commission for Justice and Social Affairs. In the Wake of the Celtic Tiger: Poverty in Contemporary Ireland. Dublin: Veritas, 2009. Print.Suche in Google Scholar
Ivancheva, Marriya, P. “The Age of Precarity and the New Challenges to the Academic Profession.” Studie Europaea LX 1 (2015): 39–47. Web. <https://www.academia.edu/11886905/The_age_of_precarity_and_the_new_challenges_to_the_academic_profession>. Accessed 23 Aug. 2017. Suche in Google Scholar
Jennings, Matt, Martin Beirne, and Stephanie McNight. “‘Just about Coping:’ Precarity and Resilience among Applied Theatre and Community Arts Workers in Northern Ireland.” Irish Journal of Arts Management and Cultural Policy 4 (2017). Web. Accessed 20 July 2017.Suche in Google Scholar
Jones, Owen. Chavs: The Demonization of the Working Class. London: Verso, 2012. Print.Suche in Google Scholar
Keating, Sara. “When Feminism Met Real Working-Class Lives in Rialto.” Irish Times 28 June 2016. Web. <https://www.irishtimes.com/culture/stage/when-feminism-met-real-working-class-lives-in-rialto-1.2696306>. Accessed 29 June 2017.Suche in Google Scholar
Lovell, Terry. “Ideology and Coronation Street.” Coronation Street. Ed. Richard Dyer et al. London: British Film Institute, 1981. 40–52. Print.Suche in Google Scholar
McCormack, Chris. “Juno and the Paycock Review at Gate Theatre, Dublin – Stunning Performances.” The Stage 17 Feb. 2016. Web. <https://www.thestage.co.uk/reviews/2016/juno-and-the-paycock-review-at-gate-theatre-dublin-stunning-performances/>. Accessed 20 Sept. 2016.Suche in Google Scholar
McGee, Hannah, et al. The SAVI Report: Sexual Abuse and Violence in Ireland. Executive Summary. Dublin: Dublin Rape Crisis Centre, 2002. Web. <http://www.drcc.ie/about/savi.pdf>. Accessed 20 Sept. 2016.Suche in Google Scholar
McMahon, Philip. “Pineapple.” ‘This is Just This. It isn’t Real. It’s Money.’ The Oberon Anthology of Contemporary Irish Plays. Ed. Thomas Conway. London: Oberon, 2012. 113–84. Print.Suche in Google Scholar
Milling, Jane. Modern British Playwriting: the 80 s: Voices, Documents, New Interpretations. London: Methuen Drama, 2012. Print.10.5040/9781408177907Suche in Google Scholar
Mills, Sara, and Louise Mullany. Language, Gender and Feminism: Theory, Methodology and Practice. Abingdon: Routledge, 2011. Print.10.4324/9780203814666Suche in Google Scholar
Morash, Christopher. A History of Irish Theatre 1601-2000. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 2002. Print.Suche in Google Scholar
National Women’s Council of Ireland. “Women and Employment.” National Women’s Council of Ireland. Web. <http://www.nwci.ie/discover/what_we_do/womens_economic_independence/women_and_employment/>. Accessed 20 Sept. 2016.Suche in Google Scholar
Murphy, C. “Anger Grows Over Rosanna’s Party Antics.” Herald.ie. 7 May 2010. Web. <https://www.herald.ie/entertainment/around-town/anger-grows-over-rosannas-party-antics-27950892.html.> Accessed 29 June 2017.Suche in Google Scholar
O’Casey, Sean. The Plough and the Stars. Educational Edition with Notes for Students by Christopher Murray. London: Faber, 2016. Print.Suche in Google Scholar
O’Toole, Fintan. “Poverty, in Our Republic of Equals, is Written on Children’s Bodies.” Irish Times 26 May 2015. Web. <https://www.irishtimes.com/opinion/fintan-o-toole-poverty-in-our-republic-of-equals-is-written-on-children-s-bodies-1.2225573>. Accessed 20 Sept. 2017.Suche in Google Scholar
Pilkington, Lionel. Theatre and the State in Twentieth-Century Ireland: Cultivating the People. London: Routledge, 2002. Print.10.4324/9780203207628Suche in Google Scholar
Pilkington, Lionel. Theatre and Ireland. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2010. Print.10.1007/978-1-137-09302-8Suche in Google Scholar
Rabinowitz, Paula. “Voyeurism and Class Consciousness: James Agee and Walker Evans Praise Famous Men.” They Must Be Represented: The Politics of Documentary. London: Verso, 1994. 35–55. Print.Suche in Google Scholar
Sihra, Melissa. “Introduction: Figures at the Window.” Women in Irish Drama: A Century of Authorship and Representation. Ed. Melissa Sihra. Basingstoke: Palgrave MacMillan, 2007. 1–22. Print.10.1057/9780230801455_1Suche in Google Scholar
Simon Community. “Housing and Homelessness Crisis in Numbers.” Aug. 2016. Web. <https://www.simon.ie/Portals/1/Housing%20and%20Homelessness%20Crisis%20in%20numbers2.pdf>. Accessed 22 Sept. 2017. Suche in Google Scholar
Singleton, Brian. “Politicizing Performance: ANU Productions and Site-Specific Theater.” Breac 10 July 2014. Web. <http://breac.nd.edu/articles/politicizing-performance-anu-productions-and-site-specific-theater/>. Accessed 1 Sept. 2017.10.1057/978-1-349-95133-8Suche in Google Scholar
Somerville-Woodward, Robert. Ballymun, A History Volumes I &2 c.1600–1997 Synopsis. Dublin: Ballymun Regeneration Limited, 2002. Print.Suche in Google Scholar
Spivak, Gayatri Chakravorty. “Can the Subaltern Speak?” Marxism and the Interpretation of Culture. Ed. Cary Nelson and Lawrence Grossburg. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 1988. 271–313. Print.Suche in Google Scholar
Standing, Guy. The Precariat: The New Dangerous Class. London: Verso, 2014. Print.10.5040/9781472510631Suche in Google Scholar
Steinbrink, Malte. “‘We Did the Slum!’ – Urban Poverty Tourism in Historical Perspective.” Tourism Geographies: AN International Journal of Tourism Space, Place and Environment, 2012. Web. <https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/14616688.2012.633216>. Accessed 23 Aug. 2017.10.1080/14616688.2012.633216Suche in Google Scholar
Sullivan, Esther Beth. “What Is ‘Left to the Woman of the House’ when the Irish Situation Is Staged.” Staging Resistance: Essays on Political Theater. Ed. Jeanne Marie Colleran, and Jenny S. Spencer. Ann Arbor: U of Michigan P, 1998. 213–26. Print.Suche in Google Scholar
Žižek, Slavoj. Violence. London: Picador, 2008. Print.Suche in Google Scholar
© 2018 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston
Artikel in diesem Heft
- Frontmatter
- Articles
- Introduction
- Nation and Negation (Terrible Rage)
- “Can I Tell You about It?”: England, Austerity and “Radical Optimism” in the Theatre of Anders Lustgarten
- Theatricalizing the National Housing Crisis in Mike Bartlett’s Game and Philip Ridley’s Radiant Vermin
- BlackLivesMatter: Remembering Mark Duggan and David Oluwale in Contemporary British Plays
- Fake News and Drama: Nationalism, Immigration and the Media in Recent British Plays
- Experiencing Nationlessness: Staging the Migrant Condition in Some Recent British Theatre
- Multiculturalism, (Im)Migration, Theatre: The National Arts Centre, Ottawa, a Case of Staging Canadian Nationalism
- ‘For We Are American’: Postmodern Pastiche and National Identity in Anne Washburn’s Mr. Burns, a Post-Electric Play
- ‘The State of Us’: Challenging State-Led Narratives through Performance during Ireland’s ‘Decade of Centenaries’
- The State We’re in: Violence and Working-Class Women on and off the Contemporary Irish Stage
- Before the Fall: Looking Back on the Royal Shakespeare Company’s “This Other Eden” Season (2001)
- From Chimera to Reality: Lucy Kirkwood’s Chimerica or ‘What State Are We in?’
- Does Verbatim Theatre Still Talk the Nation Talk?
- “What I’m Aspiring to Be Is a Good Dramatist”: Alecky Blythe in Conversation with Chris Megson
- A Victory for Real People: Dangers in the Discourse of Democratisation
Artikel in diesem Heft
- Frontmatter
- Articles
- Introduction
- Nation and Negation (Terrible Rage)
- “Can I Tell You about It?”: England, Austerity and “Radical Optimism” in the Theatre of Anders Lustgarten
- Theatricalizing the National Housing Crisis in Mike Bartlett’s Game and Philip Ridley’s Radiant Vermin
- BlackLivesMatter: Remembering Mark Duggan and David Oluwale in Contemporary British Plays
- Fake News and Drama: Nationalism, Immigration and the Media in Recent British Plays
- Experiencing Nationlessness: Staging the Migrant Condition in Some Recent British Theatre
- Multiculturalism, (Im)Migration, Theatre: The National Arts Centre, Ottawa, a Case of Staging Canadian Nationalism
- ‘For We Are American’: Postmodern Pastiche and National Identity in Anne Washburn’s Mr. Burns, a Post-Electric Play
- ‘The State of Us’: Challenging State-Led Narratives through Performance during Ireland’s ‘Decade of Centenaries’
- The State We’re in: Violence and Working-Class Women on and off the Contemporary Irish Stage
- Before the Fall: Looking Back on the Royal Shakespeare Company’s “This Other Eden” Season (2001)
- From Chimera to Reality: Lucy Kirkwood’s Chimerica or ‘What State Are We in?’
- Does Verbatim Theatre Still Talk the Nation Talk?
- “What I’m Aspiring to Be Is a Good Dramatist”: Alecky Blythe in Conversation with Chris Megson
- A Victory for Real People: Dangers in the Discourse of Democratisation
