‘I love craft. I love the word’

The Theatre of Deirdre Kinahan

Lisa Fitzpatrick editor Mária Kurdi editor

Format:Paperback

Publisher:Peter Lang International Academic Publishers

Published:17th Feb '22

Currently unavailable, and unfortunately no date known when it will be back

‘I love craft. I love the word’ cover

Over the last twenty years Deirdre Kinahan has emerged as a significant and original female voice in Irish theatre, with her plays produced in Ireland, the UK, the USA and across mainland Europe. Her work explores issues of personal and communal identity, bringing forward the difficulties that arise for individuals when accepted narratives of identity diverge from contemporary experience. In this collection of ten original essays, and an interview with the playwright, the authors address the ways in which Kinahan’s plays interrogate and seek to renegotiate value systems of family, class, ethnicity, age and gender in the 21st century neoliberal, secular state, with an emphasis on experimental forms and the renewal of the genre of the family play. Theoretical frameworks rely on feminism, intersectionality, genre studies, and age studies, among other approaches, by authors from Ireland, the UK, Hungary, the USA, Nigeria, Canada and Taiwan.

«Despite the international acclaim and success of her plays, little commentary on Deirdre Kinahan appears in the existing scholarship. This collection (essays and an interview with Kinahan) brings together well-established scholars as well as fresh voices whose analyses provide a timely as well as long overdue critical introduction to Kinahan. It is most certainly an important book in the field of contemporary Irish theatre studies.» (Joan FitzPatrick Dean, Professor Emerita, University of Missouri-Kansas City)

«This is an impressive collection of essays and one which is timely as Deirdre Kinahan’s status as a playwright both in Ireland and internationally is now well recognised. Collectively the essays make a very good case for an edited collection on Kinahan’s work. There is a good mix of scholars and scholarships and each essay deserves its place in the collection. An interview between Bisi Adigun and Deirdre Kinahan provides an ending which gives space for the author’s own voice.» (Brian Singleton, Professor, Trinity College Dublin)

ISBN: 9781800796263

Dimensions: unknown

Weight: 461g

304 pages

New edition