Modern Irish Drama (Norton Critical Editions)

This Norton Critical Edition reprints the complete texts of twelve plays by eight major Irish playwrights: Cathleen Ni Houlihan, On Baile's Strand, and Purgatory by W. B. Yeats; Spreading the News and The Rising of the Moon by Lady Gregory; Riders to the Sea and Playboy of the Western World by J. M. Synge; John Bull's Other Island by George Bernard Shaw; Juno and the Paycock by Sean O'Casey; The Quare Fellow by Brendan Behan; Krapps Last Tape by Samuel Beckett; and Translations by Brian Friel.

The texts are fully annotated with explanatory notes on Anglo-Irish usage, place names, historical figures, and literary allusions. "Backgrounds and Criticism" contains almost fifty texts relevant to the twelve plays represented. Included are prefaces by the authors, reports by spectators on original productions, memoirs concerning playwrights and performances, and recent critical assessments by American, British, and Irish scholars. From its collection of documents relevant to the origin of the Irish Literary Revival in the midst of Ireland's republican revolution to the recent formation of the Field Day Company in Northern Ireland, Modern Irish Drama charts the rise and development of one of the most powerful national dramas of the twentieth century. A Chronology and Selected Bibliography are also included.