Modern Irish Drama: W. B. Yeats to Marina Carr, Second Edition

5. A Thematic Introduction

29 A Thematic Introduction NO T S U R PR I S I NG LY, many themes weave their way in and out of the 115-year history of modern Irish drama. Most pervading is the theme of nationalism, first emphatically introduced by Yeats and in the 1920s turned into a subject of satire and derision by O’Casey (for which some never forgave him). Modern Irish drama evolved from the nationalistic movement at the turn of the twentieth century . It was conceived out of the energy and the ardor of those Irish writers who believed that the Irish nation was awaiting a rebirth as a self-governing people. Yeats called upon the ancient heroic past to provide thematic subjects for the new Irish drama, and Colum found heroism in peasant life and action in the recent past, such as in the Land War of the 1880s. One can reasonably argue that modern Irish nationalism came into being in part because of the fervor of the Anglo-Irish writers of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, and it was under the leadership of poets that the Rising of 1916 occurred. The great and ancient theme of Anglo-Irish conflict is somewhat muted in the present, pushed into the background by the related and derived theme of Unionist-Republican conflict, now seemingly abated, and by the fight for civil rights in Ulster. The Anglo-Irish struggle is now primarily a cultural one, with the smaller nation, physically cut off from its European cousins by that far larger and wealthier neighboring first cousin who stands between it and the rest of Europe and with whom there must somehow be a full 30 | PL A Y W R IG H T S A N D PL A Y S rapprochement. Related to this theme is the theme of intermarriage between Catholics and Protestants, often expressed in tragic Romeo and Juliet scenarios. But the peasant drama also had themes that did not play, so to speak, on the national political stage. These themes, close to the hearts and ever in the minds of ordinary people, included the painful problems of exile and emigration as they impacted family, community, and even nation; of leaving and sometimes returning; and of the devastating breaking of traditionally strong family ties. Although Ireland’s chief export is no longer human talent, the latter theme is still current in the nation and in the wider Irish world—as witnessed, for example, by the continuing success of revivals of Friel ’s Philadelphia, Here I Come! Then there are the marriage wars and the struggle of the young to overcome the impediments of arranged marriages when they desire to pursue their own destinies. There is also the struggle for land ownership and inheritance in a country where for centuries it was nearly impossible for a Roman Catholic peasant to own land. When land ownership was finally possible, the parcels acquired could not sustain the traditionally large families; second and third sons had to leave the farm and make their way in the wide world as best they could, and daughters were married off to any man who could support them. The theme of poverty, of course, has persisted as long as the actuality. Another powerful theme is the breaking away from the father’s power by his offspring, who seek through education and enterprise a life off the land and out of the clutches of the patriarchal family and the collaborating church. The themes focused on the past are, of course, eminently exportable because American, British, and commonwealth audiences, with their large percentage of citizens of Irish or partially Irish ancestry, are nostalgically curious about life, especially rural life, in the world of their great-grandparents. A T H E M AT IC I N T RODUC T ION | 31 Today in Ireland the archromantic, mythic, heroic theme is much out of fashion, and peasant life seems remote to a nation that is primarily city-dwelling and forward looking. To an Ireland now trying to dilute the legacy of a seemingly backward past, the ways of the old peasant now appear to be no longer pertinent and are even considered quaint—useful largely as the subject of satire or farce. Related to the dramatic, historically and theatrically speaking, is the now fading theme of the disruption of rural life resulting from the migration to the cities in the post...