Irish Shakespeares

Irish Shakespeares explores performances, adaptations, and appropriations of Shakespeare in Irish theatrical contexts, and how they articulate concerns and conversations about gender and sexual politics.

This book is the first full-length study to investigate Irish uses and appropriations in Shakespeare performance history and practice. In doing so the book demonstrates the distinctive nature of writing about Irish Shakespeare performance, in that it sits within and across multiple theoretical frameworks and paradigms. It primarily focuses on theatrical work in the Republic of Ireland, as well as performances of Shakespeare by Irish practitioners in English theatres, during a time of legislative, biopolitical, and social change and upheaval on the island of Ireland (2014-2022). Irish Shakespeares illustrates Irish Shakespeare performance as a valuable site for exploring and embodying notions, performances, and ideas of gender, sexuality, and national identity. It does not claim to be the last word on Irish Shakespeare performance either, proposing generative strategies for future work.

This book is suitable for scholars and students specialising in Shakespeare and early modern performance studies, global Shakespeares, and Shakespeare and Ireland studies, as well as Irish theatre and performance, Irish cultural history, gender and sexuality studies, and performance and politics.