<b>Sam Thompson, Stewart Parker, and the lineage of northern Irish drama</b><br>

Autores

  • Marilynn Richtarik Georgia State University

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.5007/2175-8026.2010n58p179

Resumo

Northern Irish dramatist Stewart Parker (1941-1988) wrote plays typically valued for their wit, intellectual content, and formal experimentation. Nonetheless, he was profoundly influenced as a young man by a very different sort of playwright. Sam Thompson (1916-1965), who began his working life in the Belfast shipyards, squarely confronted Northern Irish sectarianism in his plays. His sense of the political potential of drama left an enduring mark on Parker, who organized and edited Thompson's manuscripts several years after his untimely death. Although their dramatic writings bear little resemblance to each other, the two writers should be regarded as united in a common Northern Irish dramatic tradition by virtue of their shared socialist outlook, belief in the importance of individual stands against conformity, and sense of theatre's social mission.

Biografia do Autor

Marilynn Richtarik, Georgia State University

Marilynn Richtarik is an Associate Professor of English at Georgia State University in Atlanta. She is the author of Acting Between the Lines: The Field Day Theatre Company and Irish Cultural Politics, 1980-1984, published by Oxford University Press in 1995, and of a number of articles on Northern Irish drama. She is currently completing a critical biography of Belfast playwright Stewart Parker.

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Publicado

2010-01-01

Edição

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