New Plays from the Abbey Theatre: Volume Three, 1999-2001

by Judy Friel (Editor), Sanford Sternlicht (Editor)

Overview

This anthology offers the best new plays from Ireland's Abbey Theatre. In Hugh Leonard's Love in the Title, a woman's visit to the Irish countryside leads to a surreal meeting with her own mother as a 30-year-old in 1964 and her grandmother as a 20-year-old in 1922. The frank exchanges that mark this meeting allow the women to remain in and represent their times, yet still communicate with each other. Frank McGuinness's Dolly West's Kitchen is set in a small house in Donegal, 1944, a meeting place where two American GIs, a British Army captain and the nationalistic West family share meals and talk of love, war and betrayal. Finally, Jimmie Murphy's The Muesli Belt examines the ramifications of renewal and relocation in the urban centres of western Ireland, as a greedy property developer bent on buying up everything in sight to built high-rent flats throws locals into despair.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780815629870
Publisher:	Syracuse University Press
Publication date:	03/28/2003
Series:	Irish Studies
Pages:	208
Product dimensions:	6.02(w) x 9.12(h) x 0.45(d)

About the Author

Judy Friel was born in Derry in the north of lreland. She was the literary manager of Ireland's National Theatre.

Sanford Stemlicht teaches English at Syracuse University. He is the author of many books, including A Reader's Guide to Modern American Drama, also published by Syracuse University Press.

Table of Contents

	Illustrations	vii
	Introduction	ix
	The Plays
	Sour Grapes	3
	The Secret Fall of Constance Wilde	59
	Melonfarmer	113
	By the Bog of Cats	189

Editorial Reviews

In this third installment of the publisher's series, Friel, former literary manager of the Abbey Theatre (and daughter of playwright Brian Friel), and Sternlicht, an English professor at Syracuse and editor of the first two volumes in this series, present three original works that were produced during the 1999-2000 season. In the first two plays, Hugh Leonard's Love in the Title and Frank McGuinness's Dolly West's Kitchen, generational and various family and sexual relationships are both surrealistically and realistically portrayed. In the third, Jimmie Murphy's The Muesli Belt, Dublin's real estate expansion destroys old community ties built on loyalty and friendship. Rich Irish flavor and temperament are vividly apparent in the settings-the idyllic site of the giant Clough-a-Regan stone, a family kitchen, and an old bar-and human dramas unfold with humor, passion, and pathos. The introduction includes Friel's explanation of the original "Abbey Theatre Series of Plays," published between 1905 and 1933, and the new anthology beginning in 1993, along with Sternlicht's succinct presentation of the plays and playwrights. Recommended for comprehensive modern drama collections in both large public and academic libraries.-Ming-ming Shen Kuo, Ball State Univ. Lib., Muncie, IN Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.

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