Cheap Contemporary Irish Drama: From Beckett to McGuinness (Book) (Anthony Roche) Price

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1950-90: Irish playwrights against the grain
A good counterpart to recent surveys by Christopher Murray and by Nicholas Grene, Dr Roche concentrates on Irish drama over roughly the post-WW2 period up to the early 1990s. His juxtapositions work energetically to open up new perspectives on Beckett--no small feat given the weight of scholarship that confronts the novice to his drama. By playing off Godot against Behan's Quare Fellow, we see that Roche's thesis--of the recent Irish drama less concerned with conventional plot than an entry into the void, what waits outside the wings of the stage--gains force. <
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>His chapters on Tom Murphy, Friel, Tom Kilroy, and plays about "The Troubles" continue this exploration into less comforting, confrontational plays exploding (at best) stereotypical limitations of Ireland and its representation. Roche avoids jargon, constructs his points carefully and cleverly, and brings to us welcome insights and a refusal to fall into cliche as he winnows down forty-odd years of plays to concentrate on the writers best suited to challenge us today. <
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>At one point he reflects how lucky he was to see a particular play in many performances, and how he sat "rapt." Such enthusiasm, tempered with a wide knowledge of contexts within which internationally and locally to place the drama he studies, add to the appeal and the energy found in this volume.