The Methuen Drama Guide to Contemporary Irish Playwrights

Description

The Methuen Drama Guide to Contemporary Irish Playwrights is an authoritative guide to the work of twenty-five playwrights from the last 50 years whose work has helped to shape and define Irish theatre. Written by a team of international scholars, it provides an illuminating survey and analysis of each writer's plays and will be invaluable to anyone interested in, studying or teaching contemporary Irish drama. The playwrights examined range from John B. Keane, Brian Friel and Tom Murphy, to the crop of writers who emerged in the 1990s and who include Martin McDonagh, Marina Carr, Emma Donoghue and Mark O'Rowe. Each essay features: a biographical sketch and introduction to the playwright a discussion of their most important plays an analysis of their stylistic and thematic traits, the critical reception and their place in the discourses of Irish theatre a bibliography of texts and critical material With a total of 190 plays discussed in detail, over half of which were written during the 1990s and 2000s, The Methuen Drama Guide to Contemporary Irish Playwrights is unrivalled in its study of recent plays and playwrights.

Professor Martin Middeke is Chair of English Literature at the University of Augsburg, Germany, Visiting Professor at the University of Johannesburg and editor of the publications from the German Society for Contemporary Theatre and Drama in English. Professor Peter Paul Schnierer is Chair of English Literature at the University of Heidelberg, Germany.

'...enlightening essays...commendably well-researched.' * The Stage (July 2010) * 'useful guide..each entry includes overviews of the writer's life and work, analysis of significant plays, and suggestions for further reading.' * Plays International (October 2010) *