Irish theatre and Drama

Irish theatre and Drama

Irish Drama has always had a significant influence on the lives of the natives and the drama composers themselves. Religion and politics form a substantial basis of the works of most of the Irish drama composers. During the 1846 famine, there was a high renaissance of the Catholic Church (Sternlicht, 2010). The clergy benefited from the financial gains at the expense of the Irish peasant. While the lower class natives struggled to survive, the church led by the clergies took a political stand at the expense of the spiritual one. The political position was taken by the church to safeguard their status and the wealth of the church.

Yeats is recognized as one of the people who influenced the Irish Drama as it is seen today. Yeats opened the way for the criticism and rejection of Irish Catholic priests and religion as a whole. One of the styles that Yeats and succeeding writers use is the absence of priests from their Drama. The Irish priests are replaced with new priests-the artists (Sternlicht, 2010). The artists are seen as being responsible for the creation of a new religion for the Irish to define themselves from the restraints of the Catholic Church and British Imperialism. .

Synge is another writer who demonstrates an absent priest. In The Playboy of the Western World, Synge illustrates a missing priest who is frightening in authority, causing great fear among the congregants. Bernard Shaw’s John Bull’s Other Island shows Ireland’s attempt for salvation comes not from the political priest who is a product of the Catholic Church but from a defrocked priest who provides an escape from limiting the authority of the church.

Catholicism was associated with Irish. This association equated religion with national identity. However, politics and religion had different ideals of nationalism while working under the definition of Catholic Ireland (Murray, 1991). Religious and political consciousness has since been the major mirroring themes of the Irish theatre and Drama. Countess of Cathleen offers a good look into the balance of religion and tradition.

Politics and religion, as depicted in most Irish Drama and theatre, reveal the missing dichotomy in leadership in the two institutions. Works from Synge show the inabilities of tradition and the changing Christianity to coexist harmoniously.

References

Murray, C. (1991). Some Themes in Recent Irish Drama. Studies on the Contemporary Irish Theatre, 79-91.

Sternlicht, S. (2010). Modern Irish Drama: WB Yeats to Marina Carr. Syracuse University Press.