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THE PALGRAVE HANDBOOK OF
CONTEMPORARY IRISH THEATRE
AND PERFORMANCE
Edited by
Eamonn Jordan & Eric Weitz
The Palgrave Handbook of Contemporary Irish
Theatre and Performance
 Eamonn Jordan • Eric Weitz
Editors

The Palgrave
Handbook of
Contemporary Irish
Theatre and
Performance
Editors
Eamonn Jordan Eric Weitz
School of English, Drama and Film School of Creative Arts
University College Dublin Trinity College Dublin
Dublin, Ireland Dublin, Ireland

ISBN 978-1-137-58587-5    ISBN 978-1-137-58588-2 (eBook)

https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-58588-2

Library of Congress Control Number: 2018952933

© The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s) 2018

The author(s) has/have asserted their right(s) to be identified as the author(s) of this work in
accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
This work is subject to copyright. All rights are solely and exclusively licensed by the Publisher,
whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprint-
ing, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other
physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, com-
puter software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed.
The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this
publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt
from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use.
The publisher, the authors and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this
book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publisher nor the
authors or the editors give a warranty, express or implied, with respect to the material contained
herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made. The publisher remains neutral with
regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Cover illustration: ‘The Seagull & Other Birds’ Robert Altman Photography

This Palgrave Macmillan imprint is published by the registered company Springer Nature Limited
The registered company address is: The Campus, 4 Crinan Street, London, N1 9XW, United
Kingdom
This book is dedicated to the memory of Tom Murphy (1935–2018).
 Acknowledgements

A collection such as this, which attempts to assemble a wide range of original

contributions, comes more and more to lean upon not only the expertise but
the altruism of (1) scholars, subject in the current climate to third-level institu-
tions insisting they produce research with a minimum of meaningful support
(in terms of time and money), while in many cases minimizing the official
worth of contributions to such collections; and (2) practitioners who have lit-
tle, if anything, to gain professionally from such endeavours and who are all too
accustomed to having their time and energy exploited. A massive amount of
gratitude must therefore go to each and every one of our contributors for
somehow carving out time and brain space in overstuffed, underpaid lives for
the good of the project.
We owe particular thanks to Angie Butler who served as a first line of edito-
rial organization for the manuscript. We also owe an extreme debt of thanks to
Palgrave for its interest, support, co-operation and, inevitably, its understand-
ing and patience—in particular, the people who have worked with us directly:
Peter Cary, Jen McCall, Vicky Bates and Tomas René, as well as Dhana and her
editorial team. We would like to put on record our thanks to Robert Altman
for the use of his photograph in the cover design, and Pan Pan for facilitating
such permission, also including the actors pictured; to the Irish Society for
Theatre Research, at whose conferences some of these ideas were first aired and
to which most of the contributors belong; and to our respective schools and
departments for their support.

vii
 Contents

Introductions/Orientations   1
Eamonn Jordan and Eric Weitz

Part I Histories  29


The Mainstream: Problematising and Theorising  31
Shaun Richards


The Theatre Royal: Dublin  45
Conor Doyle


The Politics of Performance: Theatre in and about Northern
Ireland  51
Lisa Fitzpatrick


The Literary Tradition in the History of Modern Irish Drama  69
Christopher Murray

#WakingTheFeminists  85
Carole Quigley

Live Art in Ireland  93

Una Mannion


Gestures of Resistance: Dance in 1990s Ireland 113
Finola Cronin

ix
x CONTENTS


Contemporary Theatre in the Irish Language 135
Máirtín Coilféir


Theatre for Young Audiences in Ireland 151
Tom Maguire


Performance in the Community: Amateur Drama and Community
Theatre 165
Elizabeth Howard


Performing Politics: Queer Theatre in Ireland, 1968–2017 181
J. Paul Halferty


Long Flame in the Hideous Gale: The Politics of Irish Popular
Performance 1950–2000 201
Susanne Colleary

Other Theatres 221
Christopher Collins


Independent Theatre and New Work 233
Gavin Kostick


Funding, Sponsorship and Touring: Causing a Co-Motion 239
Shelley Troupe


New Century Theatre Companies: From Dramatist to Collective 255
Cormac O’Brien

Part II Closeups 269


The Joyful Mysteries of Comedy 271
Bernard Farrell


The Lambert Theatre and Puppetry Redefined 287
John McCormick
 CONTENTS
   xi


Scenic Transitions: From Drama to Experimental Practices in Irish
Theatre 293
Noelia Ruiz


Key Moments and Relationships: Working with Pat Kinevane 309
Jim Culleton


Irish Cinema and Theatre: Adapting to Change 315
Ruth Barton


Actor Training in Ireland Since 1965 331
Rhona Trench


Irish Theatre: A Designer’s Theatre 341
Siobhán O’Gorman


Props to the Abbey Prop Man 361
Eimer Murphy


Irish Theatre: An Actor’s Theatre 375
Bernadette Sweeney


The Figurative Artist & ÚNA’N’ANU 393
Úna Kavanagh


Irish Theatre: A Director’s Theatre 399
Ian R. Walsh

In the Wake of Olwen Fouéré’s riverrun 415

Kellie Hughes


Irish Theatre: A Writer’s Theatre 421
Nicholas Grene

The Making of Mainstream 435

Rosaleen McDonagh
xii CONTENTS

Participatory Performance: Spaces of Creative Negotiation 443

Kate McCarthy and Úna Kealy

Part III Interfaces 463


Other Spaces (Non-theatre Spaces) 465
Charlotte McIvor


Irish Plays in Other Places: Royal Court, RSC, Washington
and Berlin 487
Kevin Wallace


Ripping Up the Original?: Fictional Adaptations in Contemporary
Irish Theatre 501
Anne Fogarty


Circuitous Pathways: Marina Carr’s Labyrinth of Feminist Form
in the US World Premiere of Phaedra Backwards 517
Melissa Sihra


Being Intercultural in Irish Theatre and Performance 527
Cathy Leeney

Once Upon a Time in the Life of Arambe: A Personal Reflection 547

Bisi Adigun


Intercultural Arrivals and Encounters with Trauma
in Contemporary Irish Drama 555
Eva Urban


Dramaturgical Complicity: Representing Trauma in Brokentalkers’
The Blue Boy 575
Kate Donoghue


Between the City and the Village: Liminal Spaces and Ambivalent
Identities in Contemporary Irish Theatre 581
Brian Devaney
 CONTENTS
   xiii


Verse in Twenty-First Century Irish Theatre 599
Kasia Lech


The Gate Theatre on the Road: O’Casey, Pinter and Friel 615
Mária Kurdi


Festivals and Curation: What Is a Festival For? 631
Willie White


Interart Relations and Self-Reflexivity in Contemporary Irish
Drama 637
Csilla Bertha


“Contempt of Flesh”: Adventures in the Uncanny Valley—Stacey
Gregg’s Override 657
Ashley Taggart

Part IV Reflections 665


The Dance of Affect in Contemporary Irish Dance Theatre 667
Aoife McGrath


Artistic Vision and Regional Resistance: The Gods Are Angry, Miss
Kerr and the Red Kettle Theatre Company, a Case Study 683
Richard Hayes and Úna Kealy


Cultural Materialism and a Class Consciousness? 699
Erika Meyers


The Utilization of Domestic Space in the Reflection of Social
and Economic Struggles of Modern Living in Conor McPherson’s
New Translation of The Nest 711
Maha Alatawi

Audiences: Immersive and Participatory 717

Ciara L. Murphy
xiv CONTENTS

Sounding Affect in Pan Pan Theatre’s Adaptation of All That Fall 737

Angela Butler


Music in Irish Theatre: The Sound of the People 743
Ciara Fleming

Sightings of Comic Dexterity 759

Eric Weitz


Theatre as Memory: Acts of Remembering in Irish Theatre 763
Emilie Pine

Staging a Response: No Escape and the Rise of Documentary

Theatre in Ireland 777
Luke Lamont


Children of the Revolution: 1916 in 2016 783
James Moran


Postfeminism and Ethical Issues in Four Post-Celtic Tiger Irish
Plays by Women 799
Mária Kurdi


Reflections on Bernard Shaw and the Twenty-­First Century Dublin
Stage 819
Audrey McNamara


“Endless Art”: The Contemporary Archive of Performance 827
Barry Houlihan

Index 847
 Notes on Contributors

Bisi Adigun is originally from the Yoruba nation in western Nigeria but has
made Ireland home since 1996. He holds a PhD in Drama from Trinity College
Dublin, where he is currently a visiting lecturer. Bisi is a playwright, the-
atre director/producer and the artistic director of Arambe Productions,
Ireland’s first African theatre company, which he founded in 2003. His
productions with Arambe include The Gods Are Not to Blame (2004),
Dilemma of a Ghost (2007), Through a Film Darkly (2008), Haba Pastor Jero!
(2009), The Butcher Babes (2010) and The Paddies of Parnell Street (2013).
Bisi was also a co-presenter on the first three series of RTE’s intercultural tele-
vision programme, Mono.
Maha Alatawi is a Lecturer in English at Prince Sattam Bin Abdulaziz
University in Saudi Arabia. She was awarded an MA in English Literature from
Al-Imam Muhammad Ibn Saud Islamic University with a thesis examin-
ing two plays by Arthur Miller and Marsha Norman. She is currently a
PhD student and works as a tutor for the School of English, Drama, and
Film at University College Dublin. The focus of her research is Contemporary
Irish Theatre, particularly the work of Conor McPherson.
Ruth Barton is Associate Professor in Film Studies at Trinity College Dublin.
She is the author of a number of publications on Irish cinema, including Irish
National Cinema (2004) and Acting Irish in Hollywood (2006). She has
written critical biographies of the Hollywood star, Hedy Lamarr: Hedy
Lamarr, The Most Beautiful Woman in Film (2010) and the Irish silent era
director, Rex Ingram: Rex Ingram, Visionary Director of the Silent Screen
(2014). She is currently preparing a monograph on Irish cinema.
Csilla Bertha (University of Debrecen, Hungary) is a member of the
International Advisory Board of Irish University Review, the Editorial Board of
Hungarian Journal of English and American Studies and a founding director
of Centre for the International Study of Literatures in English. She has ­published

xv
xvi NOTES ON CONTRIBUTORS

widely (in English and Hungarian) on interart relations, memory, sites of

memory, space in Irish drama and theatre. Her A drámaíró Yeats (Yeats the
Playwright, 1988) was the first on Yeats’s drama in Hungary. She co-­authored
and co-edited volumes, including, More Real than Reality (1991), The
Celebration of the Fantastic (1992), A Small Nation’s Contribution to the World
(1993), Worlds Visible and Invisible (1994), and Brian Friel’s Dramatic Artistry
(2006). Her latest edited special Irish drama issues are IUR, 2015 and HJEAS,
2017. Her co-translated Transylvanian-Hungarian plays include Silenced Voices
(2008) and her latest editing of Hungarian literature in English is Down Fell the
Statue of Goliath, 2017.
Angela Butler is a final year PhD student in the Department of Drama at
Trinity College Dublin. Her doctoral research presents a phenomenologically
guided study of immersive performance and digital culture. Her research con-
siders the affective aesthetic experience offered by a certain strand of immersive
theatre which she has identified and termed “sensory spectacle performance”
and investigates it within the context of digital culture. Angela’s research inter-
ests include immersive performance, digital/post-digital culture, aesthetic
experience, affect theory, perception, attention and phenomenology.
Máirtín Coilféir is Assistant Professor in Celtic Studies at St Michael’s College
in the University of Toronto. Originally from Navan, Co. Meath, he has previ-
ously worked in the National University of Ireland, Galway, and University
College, Dublin. He is also editor of Comhar Taighde, an Irish-language aca-
demic journal.
Susanne Colleary is Lecturer/Theatre Practitioner and researcher in the
Humanities Department at Sligo Institute of Technology and Adjunct Lecturer
in Trinity College Dublin. Susanne was awarded her PhD in 2011 (University
College Dublin) and published her first book, Performance and Identity in
Irish Stand-Up Comedy: The Comic ‘i’ (Palgrave Macmillan, 2015), She has
published on Irish theatre, stand-up comedy and televisual satire. Susanne has
been working on practice-based research focussed on Irish popular theatre and
performance for five years. Recent theatre projects include Marian and Joseph:
A Revolutionary Love Story (Dublin, 2016). Written and directed by the author,
the work deals with political melodrama in early twentieth-century Ireland. In
collaboration with Sue Morris, the two produced a multimedia work, ‘Here We
Are At The Risk Of Our Lives’, dealing with Irish Music Hall during Easter
Week 1916 (2016). Susanne is currently writing her second book, The Subversive
Comic Impulse of Rough Theatre: Irish Political Melodrama 1900–1923 (Palgrave
Macmillan, forthcoming).
Christopher Collins is an Assistant Professor of Drama at the University of
Nottingham, UK. He has published widely on Irish theatre, including two
monographs on the work of J.M. Synge (Theatre and Residual Culture
[Palgrave, 2016], and J.M. Synge’s The Playboy of the Western World [2016]),
 NOTES ON CONTRIBUTORS
   xvii

and a co-edited collection of essays on the performance of history and memory

in Irish theatre, Ireland, Memory and Performing the Historical Imagination
(2014).
Finola Cronin is Head of Drama Studies at University College Dublin
(UCD). She studied dance in Dublin and at the London School of Contemporary
Dance. She performed most recently with Raimund Hogue (Germany/
France), and previously in Germany with Vivienne Newport (Frankfurt) and
Pina Bausch (Wuppertal). She was Dance Specialist at the Arts Council/An
Chomhairle Ealaíon from 2003–2007. She teaches choreography, and
drama & performance studies at UCD, and is director of the UCD/GSA
MA in Theatre Practice. She co-curates Corp_Real | Galway Dance Days
with Dr. Ríonach Ní Néill and Dr. Aoife McGrath and serves on the
boards of Siamsa Tíre—The National Folk Theatre, and Dublin Dance
Festival (as vice-chair). With Eamonn Jordan she edited The Contemporary
Irish Theatre and Performance Studies Reader (2016).
Jim Culleton is Artistic Director of Fishamble: The New Play Company, for
which he has directed productions which have won Olivier, The Stage, Fringe
First, Herald Angel, Argus Angel, 1st Irish, Adelaide Fringe and Irish Times
Theatre awards, on tour throughout Ireland, the UK, Europe, Australia,
New Zealand and the US. He has also directed for the Abbey Theatre,
Woodpecker/the Gaiety, 7:84 (Scotland), Project Arts Centre, Amharclann de
hIde, Amnesty International, Tinderbox, The Passion Machine, The Ark,
Second Age, RTE Radio 1, The Belgrade, TNL Canada, Dundee Rep
Ensemble, Draíocht, Barnstorm, Trinity College Dublin School of Drama,
Frontline Defenders, Gúna Nua, Origin (New York), Vessel (Australia), Little
Museum of Dublin, Symphony Space Broadway & Irish Arts Center (New
York) and RTE Lyric FM. Jim has taught for NYU, NUIM, GSA, Notre Dame
University, Trinity College Dublin and University College Dublin.
Brian Devaney holds a PhD in English Language and Literature from Mary
Immaculate College, Limerick, Ireland. He is the author of one of the most
comprehensive studies of the Irish dramatist John B. Keane, titled What Lies
Beneath: Social, Cultural, and Psychological Resonance in John B. Keane’s The
Field. He has worked as a tutor and departmental assistant for the department
of English Language and Literature in Mary Immaculate College, and also as
an English language teacher at Killarney School of English, Co. Kerry, Ireland.
He hails from the “village” of Lisselton, Co. Kerry, Ireland, and is currently
working as an English-language teacher in the city of Huelva, on the south-­
west coast of Spain.
Kate Donoghue is a PhD student in the University of Manchester, UK, where
her research concerns trauma representation in the performance work of the
former Yugoslavia, and live performance as a means of trauma relief in post-­
conflict communities. Her research interests include; bodies in performance,
xviii NOTES ON CONTRIBUTORS

memory and memorialization, acts of violence, and physical theatres. Kate

earned her MA in Drama and Performance Studies from University College
Dublin, and her BA from Knox College in Galesburg, Illinois, USA.
Conor Doyle is an author, radio presenter and historian of the Theatre Royal.
As Ireland’s leading expert on Dublin’s long-lost Theatre Royal, he lectures
and has assembled an extensive collection of Theatre Royal programmes,
photos and film archive. In recent years, he has also performed in “sell
out” concerts in the National Concert Hall, remembering this iconic
Dublin institution. Producer and presenter of four one-hour radio pro-
grammes, which commemorated the fiftieth anniversary of the closing of
the Royal. His passion for theatre history was triggered upon inheriting
his uncle Jimmy O’Dea and aunt Ursula Doyle’s memorabilia from their
stage, radio, film and radio careers, which he subsequently donated to the Irish
Theatre archives.
Bernard Farrell is a playwright whose first play, I Do Not Like Thee Doctor
Fell, opened at the Abbey Theatre in 1979 and is still produced in many trans-
lations throughout the world. His following twenty plays were premiered at
the Abbey, Gate and Red Kettle theatres in Ireland and the Laguna Playhouse
in California, and include Canaries, The Last Apache Reunion, Kevin’s Bed,
Lovers At Versailles, Happy Birthday Dear Alice, Stella By Starlight, The Verdi
Girls and Bookworms. His work for television includes Lotty Coyle Loves
Buddy Holly (RTE) and, with Graham Reid, the eighteen-part BBC series
Foreign Bodies. For radio, his plays have represented Ireland at the Prix
Italia and his Greta At The Gresham received the 2016 Zebbie Award for
Best Play of the Year. He has won the Rooney Prize For Irish Literature,
the Sunday Tribune Comedy of the Year Award, and the Best Production
Award in the Dublin Theatre Festival. He is a member of Aosdana, was
Writer-in-Association and also served on the Board of Directors of the
Abbey Theatre and, in 2014, received the John B. Keane Lifetime Achievement
Award for his services to the Arts.
Lisa Fitzpatrick is Senior Lecturer in Drama at Ulster University, where she
also has responsibility for the research students in the Faculty of Arts. She stud-
ied in Trinity College and University College Dublin prior to completing her
PhD at the Graduate Centre for Study of Drama, University of Toronto.
She has published on performance and violence, post-conflict theatre and
gender, and has been funded by the British Academy and the Canadian
High Commission. She has been an invited speaker at a number of events,
including the International Association for the Study of Irish Literatures
(IASIL), the Warwick Politics and Performance Network, and the Irish
Theatrical Diaspora project. She convened the conference “The North:
Exile, Diaspora, Troubled Performance”, held in Derry in 2012 and,
worked with the Playhouse on the International Culture Arts Network
Festival in the same city in 2013. She is a founding member of the Irish
 NOTES ON CONTRIBUTORS
   xix

Society for Theatre Research, and convenes the Gender and Performance
Working Group.
Ciara Fleming is a recent graduate of Trinity College Dublin, where she stud-
ied Drama and Theatre Studies, with a focus on directing. As part of this study,
she completed her dissertation on the realities of feminist readings of musical
theatre. These interests are reflected in the work that she contributes to as
a director and theatremaker. Ciara has worked extensively within the
wardrobe departments of the Gate Theatre and Abbey Theatre since leav-
ing university, as well as undertaking projects as an Assistant Director with
META productions and Landmark Productions.
Anne Fogarty is Professor of James Joyce Studies at University College
Dublin and co-founder with Luca Crispi of the Dublin James Joyce Journal. She
has been Academic Director of the Dublin James Joyce Summer School since
1997 and was President of the International James Joyce Foundation,
2008–2012. She is co-editor of Joyce on the Threshold (2005), Bloomsday
100: Essays on ‘Ulysses’ (2009), Imagination in the Classroom: Teaching and
Learning Creative Writing in Ireland (2013) and Voices on Joyce (2015). She
has edited special issues of the Irish University Review on Spenser and
Ireland, Lady Gregory, Eiléan Ní Chuilleanáin, and Benedict Kiely and
has published widely on aspects of twentieth- and twenty-first-century
Irish literature, especially fiction. She is currently co-editing a collection
of essays on the novelist, Deirdre Madden, and completing a study of the
historical and political dimensions of Ulysses, entitled James Joyce and Cultural
Memory: Reading History in ‘Ulysses’.
Nicholas Grene is Emeritus Professor of English Literature at Trinity College
Dublin and a Member of the Royal Irish Academy. His books include
Shakespeare’s Tragic Imagination (1992), The Politics of Irish Drama (1999),
Shakespeare’s Serial History Plays (2002), Yeats’s Poetic Codes (2008) and Home
on the Stage (2014). The Oxford Handbook of Modern Irish Theatre, which he
co-edited with Chris Morash, was published in 2016. The Theatre of Tom
Murphy: Playwright Adventurer was published in 2017.
J. Paul Halferty is Assistant Professor in Drama Studies at University
College Dublin. He has taught at York University, the University of
Toronto, and at Brock University, mainly in the areas of theatre history,
acting, gender and sexuality studies. His work has been published in Theatre
Research in Canada, Canadian Theatre Review, and in the anthology Queer
Theatre in Canada. He is associate editor and contributor to TRANS(per)
FORMING NinaArsenault: An Unreasonable Body of Work, and co-editor
of the “Views and Reviews” section of Canadian Theatre Review. His cur-
rent book project is a history of gay theatre in Toronto from the mid-1960s
to the mid-1990s.
xx NOTES ON CONTRIBUTORS

Richard Hayes lectures in English at Waterford Institute of Technology

where he is also Vice President for Strategy. He is a graduate of Maynooth
University and University College Dublin, where he completed doctoral
research on twentieth-century American theatre. His current research interests
include an interest in charting the relationship between regional identity and
theatre practice, a project called “Performing the Region”. He has published a
number of articles on American theatre and American cinema, on Irish poetry,
and on aspects of contemporary film culture.
Barry Houlihan is an Archivist at the James Hardiman Library, NUI Galway.
There he manages theatre and performance archives such as Druid Theatre
Company and the Galway Arts Festival and is Project Board member of
the Abbey Theatre and Gate Theatre Digital Archives. Barry is editor of
the forthcoming volume Navigating Ireland’s Theatre Archive: Theory,
Performance, Practice (2018). Barry holds a PhD from NUI Galway, based
on research investigating archives of plays at the intersection of Irish theatre
and society in Modern Ireland. He is also President of the International
Association of Libraries, Museums, Archives and Documentation Centres of
the Performing Arts (SIBMAS).
Elizabeth Howard studied Drama and Theatre Studies with Counselling
Skills at the University of Chester before completing an MA in Performance
Making at Goldsmiths College, London. In 2013, she was awarded a PhD
scholarship from Waterford Institute of Technology for research into Red
Kettle Theatre Company using the company’s archive as a primary
research source. In between and during academic engagements Elizabeth
has worked extensively in the theatre industry in both Ireland and the
UK. She continues to make her own performance work.
Kellie Hughes is a theatremaker based in Dublin. Recent work includes the
adaptation and direction of José Saramago’s Death at Intervals (Galway
International Arts Festival, Dublin Theatre Festival) and co-direction of
Beckett’s Lessness (Barbican International Beckett Festival) and Olwen Fouéré’s
riverrun (world tour). Kellie was an ensemble performer with Blue Raincoat
Theatre for seven years, collaborating on the creation of new works, interpret-
ing classic texts and directing on occasion, most notably the Yeats Project.
Interested in the expressive potential of the body, Kellie wrote and performed
two shows for the Science Museum, London: Art, Science and the Moving Body
and The Brain and the Body (televised on the BBC). She trained at the Ecole de
Mime Corporel Dramatique, London and the Centre Artistique International
Roy Hart, Maleragues. Kellie holds a first-class BA (Hons) in Theatre and
History and an MA (Hons) in Physical Theatre. She is currently Director in
Residence at University College Dublin.
Eamonn Jordan is Associate Professor in Drama Studies at the School of
English, Drama and Film, University College Dublin. His book The Feast of
Famine: The Plays of Frank McGuinness (1997) is the first full-length study on
 NOTES ON CONTRIBUTORS
   xxi

McGuinness’s work. In 2000, he edited Theatre Stuff: Critical Essays on

Contemporary Irish Theatre. More recently, he co-edited with Lilian
Chambers The Theatre of Martin McDonagh: A World of Savage Stories (2006).
His book Dissident Dramaturgies: Contemporary Irish Theatre was published
in 2010. In 2012, he co-edited with Lilian Chambers The Theatre of Conor
McPherson: ‘Right beside the Beyond’. In 2014 From Leenane to LA: The Theatre
and Cinema of Martin McDonagh was published. He will publish The Theatre
of Conor McPherson: Conspicuous Communities in 2019.
Úna Kavanagh holds a BA and MA from the National College of Art &
Design, Dublin. She is a figurative artist whose work includes sculpture, text,
painting, drawing, performance, film, installation, animation, script writing,
music composition, performance art and live art durational performances. Her
practice ranges from extensive work in theatre, film, television and radio to her
artistic collaborations. She has been a company member with multi-award-
winning ANU Productions since 2010, collaborating on three performance
artworks, eleven live art theatre works and film works. Úna has exhibited in
both solo and group exhibitions for the last twenty years. Her work is held in
private collections both here and the Middle East. She has been awarded The
Art’s Council Theatre Bursary award 2017 and represented Ireland in “Art By
Country” in Abu Dhabi in 2014. She is an award-winning actress and has
received international nominations for her work on screen. She was shortlisted
for the SKY Arts Ignition award as part of TATSOI (Art/Science Collaboration)
and was the first Artist In Residence for the inaugural Festival Of Curiosity in
2013.
Úna Kealy currently lectures in Theatre Studies and English at Waterford
Institute of Technology (WIT). She has worked in professional theatre as a
company, venue and festival manager, workshop facilitator and dramaturg. Her
current research projects include “Performing the Region”, which aims to
critically examine the place of playwrights and practitioners from the south-east
of Ireland within the narrative of Irish theatre; “Performing Women”, which
considers the representation of women in plays by women staged at the Abbey
Theatre during the 1900s; and “Letters from the Past”, a research project
around the correspondence between Waterford playwrights Teresa Deevy and
James Cheasty. Details of publications, curatorial achievements, workshops and
public lectures available at: www.wit.ie/about_wit/contact_us/staff_direc-
tory/una_kealy.
Gavin Kostick is an internationally produced playwright and Literary Officer
for Fishamble: The New Play Company. Through Fishamble and as an inde-
pendent dramaturg he has worked with hundreds of writers for the stage.
He is currently a tutor in both the Samuel Beckett Centre, Trinity College
Dublin and the Lír. He performed Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness:
Complete, a six-hour show in Dublin and London.
xxii NOTES ON CONTRIBUTORS

Mária Kurdi is Professor in the Institute of English Studies at the University

of Pécs, Hungary. Her main area of research is Irish and anglophone theatre.
She is author of five books, including Representations of Gender and Female
Subjectivity in Contemporary Irish Drama by Women (2010). She is editor or
co-editor of several volumes of essays, the latest one being the collection
Radical Contemporary Theatre Practices by Women in Ireland, co-edited with
Miriam Haughton (2015). In various journals and edited collections, she
has published numerous scholarly articles and interviews with Irish
playwrights.
Luke Lamont is a PhD candidate in the School of English, Drama and Film
at University College Dublin having received his BA in English and Philosophy
from the same institution in 2013. He then completed an MPhil. in Irish
Writing at Trinity College Dublin in 2014, writing his dissertation on the
representations of memory and trauma in Irish theatre. His current
research project is entitled “Act of Witnessing: Analysing the Rise of
Documentary Theatre in Irish Drama”, and is funded by the Irish
Research Council Government of Ireland Postgraduate Scholarship.
Luke’s research interests include socially engaged theatre, “theatre of the real”
and memory studies.
Kasia Lech is a scholar, actor, storyteller, puppeteer, and a Senior Lecturer in
the School of Music and Performing Arts at Canterbury Christ Church
University, UK. She holds a PhD from University College Dublin, with her
research being supported by the Irish Research Council. She has published on
verse and verse drama in contemporary performance, theatre translation, mul-
tilingual theatre, multilingual actor, Spanish, Polish, and Irish theatres, theatre
and animal rights, and puppetry. Her research interests also include actor train-
ing and performance of poetry. Kasia trained as an actor at the Ludwik Solski
State Drama School in Poland and has performed in numerous productions in
Poland and Ireland, including starring as the Grey Cat, a puppet that co-hosted
the awarded live TV show for children CyberMysz on Polish national television.
Kasia is a co-founder and the Artistic Liaison of Polish Theatre Ireland—a mul-
ticultural theatre company based in Dublin. Kasia also runs a project Bubble
Revolution that engages with the process of performing translation and looks
at the role of non-native speaking actors in staging translation.
Cathy Leeney is currently Adjunct Assistant Professor in Drama Studies at
University College Dublin, where she lectured in theatre and performance for
twenty years and established the first Irish postgraduate programme in Directing
for Theatre, now running in partnership with the Gaiety School of Acting
as The MA in Theatre Practice. She initiated the project that led to
Ireland’s first national entry into the Prague Quadrennial International
Exhibition of Theatre Scenography and Architecture in 2007, which was
supported by Culture Ireland and the Arts Council. Her publications and
research range across Irish theatre and Performance in the twentieth and
 NOTES ON CONTRIBUTORS
   xxiii

twenty-first centuries, focussing largely on the work of women play-

wrights and feminist analysis. Irish Women Playwrights 1900–1939: Gender and
Violence on Stage was published in 2010.
Tom Maguire is a Senior Lecturer in Theatre Studies and Research Unit
Coordinator at Ulster University. He teaches on undergraduate and postgradu-
ate programmes and supervises research students in Drama and in Museums
and Cultural Heritages. His research engages with the relationships between
performance, identity, place and power, particularly in Britain and
Ireland. Current projects are focused on Theatre for Young Audiences
and the performance of post-conflict places. In addition to over 30 essays
and chapters, he has published Making Theatre in Northern Ireland: Through
and Beyond the Troubles (2006) and Performing Story on the Contemporary
Stage (2015). With Karian Schuitema, he co-edited Theatre for Young
Audiences in the UK: A Critical Handbook (2013); and April 2015 saw the
launch of The Theatre of Marie Jones: Telling Stories from the Ground Up,
which he co-edited with Eugene McNulty. He serves on the Peer Review
College of the Arts and Humanities Research Council. He is a member of
the Board of the International Theatre for Young Audiences Research
Network and the Editorial Board for About Performance. He is Chair of the
Board of Big Telly Theatre Company, Northern Ireland.
Una Mannion teaches a Live Art module in the Performing Arts programme
at IT Sligo and is programme chair of the new BA in Literature and Writing.
She is a writer and in the past year she is the winner of Ambit Fiction Prize,
Cuirt Short Story prize, Doolin short story prize and was winner of the
Hennessy Emerging poetry award. Her work has been published in Bare
Fiction, The Irish Times, Ambit and The Incubator.
Kate McCarthy is Lecturer in Drama at Waterford Institute of Technology.
Her research interests include educational drama, contemporary theatre prac-
tice, in particular participatory performance, and the arts and education.
Current research projects at WIT include Performing the Region, the Waterford
Memories Project, which is an interdisciplinary oral history project that
aims to document cultural heritage in the south-east region of Ireland,
and “Letters from the Past”, a research project around the correspon-
dence between Waterford playwrights Teresa Deevy and James Cheasty.
Kate is also a member of the Arts Education Research Group at Trinity
College Dublin. As a practitioner, Kate has facilitated and devised numerous
contemporary theatre projects.
John McCormick has taught at Åbo Akademi, Finland, and lectured in
French at Glasgow University and Trinity College, Dublin, where he was asso-
ciate professor and first director of the Drama Department (1984). He is a
founder of the Irish Theatre Archive (1981) and also a member of the ­executive
committee of UNIMA (International puppetry association) 2000–2002.
Author of various books and articles on nineteenth- and twentieth-­century
xxiv NOTES ON CONTRIBUTORS

French and British theatre. An active amateur puppeteer and author of Popular
Puppets in Europe 1800–1914 (with Bennie Pratasik) (1998); The Victorian
Marionette Theatre (2004); The Italian Puppet Theater—A history (with
Alfonso Cipolla and Alessandro Napoli) (2010); Pupazzi—Glove Puppets and
Marionettes in the Castello dei Burattini Museo Giordano Ferrari in Parma
(with Paolo Parmiggiani) (2015). He is currently in the process of preparing
for publication The Holdens—Monarchs of the Marionette Theatre.
Rosaleen McDonagh is a Traveller woman with a disability, and the fourth
eldest in a family of twenty children. She is a board member of Pavee Point
Traveller & Roma Centre, where she previously managed its Violence Against
Women programme for ten years. Rosaleen’s theatre work includes The Baby
Doll Project, She’s Not Mine and Rings. Her play, Mainstream, was directed by
Jim Culleton. Her latest project, Protégée, is based on Colum McCann’s
Booker Prize-winning novel, Zoli. In 2012, Beat Him Like a Badger was
commissioned as part of the Tiny Plays for Ireland series. Rosaleen has
worked with Graeae Theatre, and also spent two weeks on attachment in
the Royal Court Theatre. Rosaleen has a BA in Biblical & Theological
Studies, an MPhil in Ethnic & Racial Studies, and an MPhil in Creative
Writing, all from Trinity College Dublin. She is currently a PhD candidate in
Northumbria University.
Aoife McGrath is a lecturer in Drama at the School of Arts, English and
Languages, Queen’s University Belfast. After a professional dance career in
Germany and Ireland, Aoife has worked as a choreographer and dance critic,
and as Dance Advisor for the Irish Arts Council. Recent publications include
work on: dance and affect; improvisation and feminism; dance, modernity
and politics; and creativity in contemporary re-imaginings of traditional
Irish dance. Aoife’s book publications include her monograph, Dance Theatre
in Ireland: Revolutionary Moves (2013), and a forthcoming co-­edited collec-
tion (with Dr. Emma Meehan, CDaRe), Dance Matters in Ireland: Contemporary
Processes and Practices (2017). She is currently developing a project on dance
and the maternal. Aoife is a co-convenor of the Choreography and Corporeality
Working Group of the IFTR, an executive committee member of the Irish
Society for Theatre Research, a member of the board of directors of Dance
Limerick, and a performer/choreographer member of Dance Ireland.
Charlotte McIvor is a Lecturer in Drama and Theatre Studies at the National
University of Ireland, Galway. She is the author of Migration and Performance
in Contemporary Ireland: Towards A New Interculturalism (Palgrave
Macmillan) and the co-editor of Staging Intercultural Ireland: Plays and
Practitioner Perspectives (with Matthew Spangler) and Devised Performance in
Irish Theatre: Histories and Contemporary Practice (with Siobhán O’Gorman).
She has published in Theatre Topics, Modern Drama, Irish University Review,
Irish Studies Review and multiple edited volumes on contemporary theatre and
performance.
 NOTES ON CONTRIBUTORS
   xxv

Audrey McNamara was awarded her PhD in Drama from University College
Dublin and now lectures there. Her monograph Bernard Shaw: From
Womanhood to Nationhood—The Irish Shaw is forthcoming from Palgrave
Macmillan. Her publications include essays on the work of Bernard Shaw,
Conor McPherson, Enda Walsh and Benjamin Black. She wrote the programme
note for the Abbey Theatre’s production of Pygmalion (2014), and was a
plenary speaker for the National Theatre (London) production of Man
and Superman. She was guest co-editor with Nelson O’Ceallaigh Ritschel
for Shaw 36.1: Shaw and Money (2016) and Shaw and Modern Ireland
(Palgrave Macmillan, 2017). She is also guest co-editor of The Eugene O’Neill
Review Spring 2018 Edition.
Erika Meyers earned her MA in Creative Writing from University College
Dublin and her PhD from the University of Edinburgh. Her first book,
Strangers in America, won first place in the Great Lakes Novel Contest.
James Moran is Professor of Modern English Literature and Drama at the
University of Nottingham, UK. His recent books include The Theatre of
D.H. Lawrence (2015); The Theatre of Sean O’Casey (2013); and—as co-editor
with Neal Alexander—Regional Modernisms (2013).
Ciara L. Murphy is a PhD student at the Centre for Drama, Theatre and
Performance at NUI Galway. Ciara’s research is an interrogation of contempo-
rary participatory performance practice in public space on the island of Ireland,
with a specific focus on immersive and site-responsive performance. This
research is supported by the Galway Doctoral Scholarship scheme. Ciara
previously obtained a BA in Drama and English and an MA in Theatre and
Performance Studies from University College Dublin.
Eimer Murphy received her primary degree is in film, but on graduation
Eimer found her way into theatre work and has yet to find her way back. As a
stage manager on Fringe shows with miniscule budgets, necessity forced Eimer
to discover a previously unsuspected aptitude for making things, and it was this
ability which led to her early work with Barabbas… the Company, where mad-
cap invention, ingenuity and artistry were involved in the creation of almost
every single prop. As a freelance stage manager/prop maker, Eimer made props
for companies such as Barabbas, Calypso, TEAM, Opera Theatre Company,
Rough Magic, Cois Ceim, Passion Machine, Lane Productions, and four suc-
cessive Gaiety Pantomimes, before joining the Abbey Theatre to work along-
side the legendary Stephen Molloy as a full-time prop maker/set dresser in
2007. She has recently completed an MA in Material Culture Design History
in NCAD, where she submitted a thesis on props entitled When Are We Getting
the Real Thing?—a title which initially perplexed her tutor but to which her
colleagues instantly related.
xxvi NOTES ON CONTRIBUTORS

Christopher Murray is Emeritus Professor of English, Drama and Film at

University College Dublin. He is a former editor of Irish University Review.
His books include Twentieth-Century Irish Drama: Mirror up to Nation
(1997); Seán O’Casey: Writer at Work, A Biography (2004); and The Theatre of
Brian Friel: Tradition and Modernity (2014). In addition, he has edited Samuel
Beckett: 100 Years, Centenary Essays (2006); Brian Friel: Essays, Diaries,
Interviews 1964–1999 (1999); and ‘Alive in Time’: The Enduring Drama of
Tom Murphy, New Essays (2010), and he has also contributed many articles and
chapters to journals and books on Irish drama and theatre history.
Cormac O’Brien is Assistant Professor of Anglo-Irish Drama in the School of
English, Drama and Film at University College Dublin. He is a specialist in
modern and contemporary Irish drama with a comparative focus on British and
American theatre, investigating the relations between governance and citizen-
ship, and gender, sexuality and national identities. Cormac further specializes
in the interdisciplinary field of Medical Humanities, comparatively exploring
Irish and other western cultural responses to HIV and AIDS, predominantly in
drama, fiction, cinema and television. He has recently expanded this research
into dramatic and literary representations of epidemics and pandemics. Cormac
has published widely on masculinities and queer sexualities in Irish theatre, as
well as on HIV and AIDS in Irish culture and performance, including in jour-
nals such as Journal of Medical Humanities, The Irish Review, Irish University
Review, and Theatre Research International. Together with John M. Clum (of
Duke University), Cormac has recently co-edited the collection, Gender and
Sexuality in the Theatre of Edward Albee (2017). He is also co-editor, with
Shonagh Hill, of a special edition Irish Society for Theatre Research’s journal,
Performance Ireland: Gender, Sexuality, and the City. He is currently preparing
his first monograph, Masculinities and Manhood in Irish Contemporary Irish
Drama, for publication in 2018.
Siobhán O’Gorman is a Senior Lecturer at the School of Fine & Performing
Arts, University of Lincoln. She also has taught and researched theatre and
performance at NUI Galway, Trinity College Dublin and the University of
Derby. She held a Government of Ireland Postdoctoral Fellowship from 2013
to 2015. Her work has appeared in several books and such journals as Scene,
Irish Studies Review and the Journal of Adaptation in Film and Performance.
She is on the executive committee of the Irish Society for Theatre Research,
and the editorial board of Studies in Costume & Performance, and was part
of the curatorial team for Ireland’s participation in the Prague Quadrennial
2015. She is co-editor of Devised Performance in Irish Theatre: Histories and
Contemporary Practice (2015) and her monograph, Theatre, Performance
and Design: Scenographies in a Modernizing Ireland, is forthcoming with
Palgrave Macmillan.
Emilie Pine is Associate Professor of Modern Drama in the School of English,
Drama and Film at University College Dublin. Emilie is editor of the Irish
 NOTES ON CONTRIBUTORS
   xxvii

University Review and Director of the Irish Memory Studies Network

(www.irishmemorystudies.com). She is PI of the Irish Research Council
New Horizons project Industrial Memories (2015–2018), and was a judge
for the Irish Times Theatre Awards 2014. Emilie has published widely in
the field of Irish studies, theatre and memory studies, including The Politics
of Irish Memory: Performing Remembrance in Contemporary Irish Culture
(Palgrave Macmillan, 2011) and Performing in the Memory Marketplace:
Witnessing in World Theatre (forthcoming). Emilie is also the author of a col-
lection of personal essays, This is Not on the Exam (2018).
Carole Quigley is a Teaching Fellow in the Department of Drama and
Theatre Studies at Mary Immaculate College, Limerick. She recently com-
pleted her PhD dissertation in the Department of Drama at Trinity College
Dublin. Her dissertation title is The Fourth Wave Fights Back: Deconstructing
the Performativity of Rape Culture Through Contemporary Irish Theatre,
Performance and Society. She graduated from an MPhil. in Theatre and
Performance at Trinity College Dublin in 2015, and a BA in English with
Drama from University College Dublin in 2013. Her specific research
interests include; women on the contemporary Irish stage, the female
body in performance, representations of feminisms and femininities in
Ireland, sexual violence against women and the construction of a global
“rape culture”, and navigating the sexual and sexualized female performer.
Shaun Richards is Emeritus Professor of Irish Studies at Staffordshire University,
UK. He is the author (with Chris Morash) of Mapping Irish Theatre: Theories of
Space and Place (2013) and editor of the Cambridge Companion to Twentieth-
Century Irish Drama (2004). He has published on Irish drama in major journals
and edited collections, most recently a chapter on realism in early twentieth-
century Irish drama in The Oxford Handbook of Modern Irish Theatre (2016).
Noelia Ruiz is a native of Barcelona now based in Dublin. She graduated
from her research PhD programme in 2013 (University College Dublin) and
also holds an MA in Directing for Theatre (University College Dublin, 2007).
Her research interests focus on contemporary theatre and performance
aesthetics and its processes of creation, having published a number of
articles, including “Mapping Contemporary European Theatre(s):
Reconsidering Notions of Devised and Postdramatic Theatre” in Devised
Performance in Irish Theatre: Histories and Contemporary Practice (2015).
She is an occasional lecture in University College Dublin and works as a
freelance producer, digital marketer and communications manager for different
artistic entities.
Melissa Sihra is Assistant Professor of Drama and Theatre Studies at Trinity
College Dublin and editor of Women in Irish Drama: A Century of Authorship
and Representation (Palgrave Macmillan). She is also co-editor (with Paul
Murphy) of The Dreaming Body: Contemporary Irish Theatre and (with
Pirkko Koski) of The Global Meets the Local in Performance. She researches
xxviii NOTES ON CONTRIBUTORS

in the field of women in Irish theatre, gender, feminism, Marina Carr and
Augusta Gregory. She is former President of the Irish Society for Theatre
Research (2011–2015).
Bernadette Sweeney has a PhD from the School of Drama, Trinity College,
Dublin. Previously, she was lecturer at University College Cork’s drama and
theatre studies programme, and is now associate professor of theatre at the
School of Theatre & Dance at the University of Montana. Practice as research
has been a foundation of her work in her performance research, teaching and
directing. She directed the 2014 Montana Repertory Theatre national
tour and will direct for Bare Bait Dance later this year. Recent produc-
tions include Translations, Romeo and Juliet and a film adaptation of Krapp’s
Last Tape called Be Again.
She has published a monograph Performing the Body in Irish Theatre with
Palgrave Macmillan, co-edited, with Marie Kelly, a collection The Theatre of
Tom Mac Intyre: Strays from the Ether, and is currently co-editing The Routledge
Companion to Performance Practitioners and The Routledge Handbook of Studio
Practice with Franc Chamberlain. She was a founder member of the Irish
Society for Theatre Research.
Ashley Taggart studied in the USA for many years, lecturing on topics such
as Irish Novel, and The Literature of the Northern Irish Troubles. He has also
taught courses in Creative Writing, Playwriting and Screenwriting, and has
recently taken on a lecturing post at UCD. He has an MA and PhD in Literature
from the University of York and has worked as a script editor and screenwriter.
His films have been accepted by the Chicago Film Festival, the Cork Film
Festival and the Boston Film Festival. He has also been a winner of the
P.J. O’Connor Radio Drama Award. He has recently completed a book with
Chris Comer on neuroscience and literature, entitled Enchanting the Loom,
which is shortly to be published.
Rhona Trench is Programme Chair and lecturer in Performing Arts at IT
Sligo. Her research interests include theatre design (set, sound and lighting),
actor training in Ireland, women playwrights and performance, and the body
in performance. Her books include Bloody Living: The Loss of Self in the Plays of
Marina (2010); Staging Thought: Essays on Irish Theatre, Scholarship and
Practice (edited, 2012) and Blue Raincoat Theatre Company (2015). She is
Treasurer of the Irish Society for Theatre Research.
Shelley Troupe worked for a diverse range of Broadway and off-Broadway
producers in New York City, including the Irish Repertory Theatre, the
National Asian American Theatre Company, and Dodger Endemol. She com-
pleted her PhD in Irish Theatre at the National University of Ireland, Galway,
and is an occasional lecturer at Maynooth University. Her publication contri-
butions include the Oxford Handbook of Modern Irish Theatre and The Great
Irish Famine: Visual and Material Cultures. In recent years, she has returned
to theatre production as Social Media Manager for Co-Motion Media and as
 NOTES ON CONTRIBUTORS
   xxix

dramaturg for London’s Ardent Theatre. A member of Ballina Textiles Group

and Craftworks Mayo, she is also a craftsperson who specializes in bespoke
lifestyle items.
Eva Urban is Senior Research Fellow at Queen’s University, Belfast.
Previously, she was a Région de Bretagne Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the
Centre de Recherche Bretonne et Celtique (CRBC), Université de Rennes 2,
France. She recently completed a British Academy Postdoctoral Research
Fellowship at the University of Cambridge and is a Life Member of Clare
Hall, Cambridge. The author of Community Politics and the Peace Process in
Contemporary Northern Irish Drama (2011), she has also published many
research articles in the journals New Theatre Quarterly, Etudes Irlandaises
and Caleidoscopio, and essays in edited book collections. Publications
include “Reification and Modern Drama: an Analysis, a Critique, and a
Manifesto” (2016); “‘Actors in the same Tragedy’: Bertrand Russell,
Humanism, and The Conquest of Happiness” (2015); “From the
Enlightenment to the Berliner Ensemble: Lessing’s Nathan the Wise” (2014).
Kevin Wallace is the Head of Department of Humanities and Arts Management
in Dun Laoghaire Institute of Art, Design & Technology. He lectures in con-
temporary and twentieth-century Irish literature and drama. He has published
on various British and Irish theatremakers, including Marina Carr, Sarah Kane,
Conor McPherson, Katie Mitchell and Enda Walsh.
Ian R. Walsh is a Lecturer in Drama and Theatre Studies at NUI Galway. He
has a PhD from University College Dublin and has published widely on Irish
theatre in peer-reviewed journals and edited collections. In 2012, his mono-
graph, Experimental Irish Theatre: After W.B. Yeats, was published by Palgrave
Macmillan. He has co-edited (with Mary Caulfield) The Theatre of Enda Walsh
(2015) and co-written (with Charlotte McIvor) Contemporary Irish Theatre
and Performance (2018) for Palgrave Macmillan. Ian has been a Theatre
Reviewer for Irish Theatre Magazine and RTE Radio 1 and has also worked as
a freelance director of theatre and opera.
Eric Weitz lectures in Comedy and Acting at Trinity College Dublin.
Publications include Theatre & Laughter (2016) and The Cambridge
Introduction to Comedy (2009), as well as two edited collections, For the Sake
of Sanity: Doing Things with Humour in Irish Society (2014) and The Power of
Laughter: Comedy and Contemporary Irish Theatre (2004). He has contributed
to Performance Research, the Irish University Review, the Encyclopedia of
Humor Studies and the Oxford Encyclopedia of Theatre and Performance. He
edited the European Journal of Humour Research Special Issue on “Humour
and Social Media” (2016) and he has also contributed a chapter to the
Routledge Handbook of Language and Humor, with the title “Online and
Internet Humor” (2017). He is currently President of the Irish Society for
Theatre and Performance Research.
xxx NOTES ON CONTRIBUTORS

Willie White has been Artistic Director of Dublin Theatre Festival since 2011
and was previously Artistic Director of Project Arts Centre, Dublin from 2002
to 2011. He was a board member of IETM, the international network for the
contemporary performing arts, from 2010 to 2017 and its President for four
years.
 List of Figures

Live Art in Ireland

Fig. 1 Amanda Coogan, Yellow, RHA Dublin, October 2015.
(Photo credit: Paddy Cahill) 98
Fig. 2 Dominic Thorpe, Redress State—Questions Imagined, Performance at
126 Gallery Galway 2010. (Photo credit: Jonathon Salmon) 99
Fig. 3 Áine Phillips, Redress, Right here Right Now, Kilmainham Gaol
2010. (Photo credit: T. O’Brien) 102
Fig. 4 Anne Ffrench and Aideen Barry, Heteratopic Glitch. (Photo credit:
John Allen) 106
Props to the Abbey Prop Man
Fig. 1 Religious statues hung with rosary beads, alongside modern kitchen
appliances and a vintage cobblers advertisement in an Abbey Theatre
prop store, 2016. (Permission, Eimer Murphy) 362
Fig. 2 Publicity brochure produced for a 1906 UK tour of the “new Irish
plays” produced by the Abbey Theatre. (Permission, Abbey Theatre
Archive)363
Fig. 3 The original Plough pram, 1976. Bill Foley as Uncle Peter looks on
while Siobhán McKenna as Bessie Burgess and Angela Newman as
Jinny Gogan fight over the original pram in the 1976 production of
Plough. The rough treatment of the pram in this scene lead to its
eventual retirement from the stage in 1999. (Photo: Fergus
Bourke, Permission, Abbey Theatre Archive) 364
Fig. 4 The role of the Property Master, Abbey Theatre job description,
1978. (Permission, Stephen Molloy) 365
Fig. 5 Mid-century Jacobean style sideboard, 2014. When I found this oak
sideboard in a second-hand shop, it was the potential of the “barley
twist” base, a feature associated with Jacobean era furniture, and the
panelled doors that caught my eye. (Permission, Eimer Murphy) 366
Fig. 6 Abbey Prop Master Stephen Molloy, 2014. Molloy began by
dismantling the sideboard, and then skilfully reassembling the
sections in a different order so that the barley twist base became the
legs of the chaise, the top became the seat, and one of the carved
doors became the back 367

xxxi
xxxii LIST OF FIGURES

Fig. 7 The completed chaise, 2014. The finished prop as it appeared on the
set of the 2014 production of Goldsmith’s She Stoops to Conquer
(1773). Set design by Liam Doona, directed by Conall Morrison 368
Fig. 8 Chair restoration, 2013. On the left is an Edwardian chair sourced by
the author at the back of an antique dealers shed, and purchased for
€20. On the right is the same chair after restoration and upholstery
work by Stephen Molloy for the Abbey Theatre’s 2013 production of
Bernard Shaw’s Major Barbara (1905). (Permission, Eimer Murphy) 369
Fig. 9 Dandelion drawing, 2010. Director Wayne Jordan wanted a
dandelion seed head that could be handled and then “blown” onstage
during performance. This photograph shows my notes and drawings
as I worked out the problem. 30 mm lengths of monofilament were
glued together at one end making a cluster, and each cluster was then
glued to a modelling clay ball mounted onto a wire stem. The
monofilament was dipped into a container of finely cut ostrich
feathers, which were trapped between the strands, to be blown free
onstage. (Permission, Eimer Murphy) 370
Fig. 10 The dandelion clock as it appeared onstage with Aoife Duffin as
Winnie Butler in Thomas Kilroy’s Christ Deliver Us! 2010. The build
itself took about five days, however many more hours were spent in
the “research and development” stage, where materials are gathered
and tested, and prototypes made and discarded. Onstage, the effect
lasted for approximately ten seconds. This prop remains one of my
favourite prop challenges from The Abbey. (Permission Ross
Kavanagh)371
Fig. 11 Teddy bear prop from Town is Dead (2016) written and directed by
Philip McMahon. This bear was difficult to find, McMahon rejected
several before emphatically choosing this well-worn bear as coming
closest to the “feel”, if not the look, of the bear remembered from
childhood. (Permission, Eimer Murphy) 371
Fig. 12 Duffel bag before. Hester Swayne’s bag for the 2015 production of
Marina Carr’s By the Bog of Cats, designed by Monica Frawley,
directed by Selina Cartmell. (Permission, Eimer Murphy) 372
Fig. 13 Duffel bag, after breaking down, 2015. Hester Swayne’s bag for the
2015 production of Marina Carr’s By the Bog of Cats, designed by
Monica Frawley, directed by Selina Cartmell. (Permission, Eimer
Murphy)372
Fig. 14 Making paper props for Tom Murphy’s 1998 play, The Wake, 2016.
Prop managers must also have a talent for counterfeiting and graphics
work. Here, mid-­1990s American cigarette packets, airline tickets,
and Homestead bean labels were among the labels researched and
reproduced for this production. Each packet of herbal cigarettes was
repackaged in the “Winston” packaging pictured above, to appear in
the play as duty-free brought home by returning emigrant Vera
(played by Aisling O’ Sullivan) in the 2016 production, directed by
Annabelle Comyn and designed by Paul O’ Mahony. (Permission,
Eimer Murphy) 373
 LIST OF FIGURES
   xxxiii

Children of the Revolution: 1916 in 2016

Fig. 1 The image of Seán Foster, as rendered on one of the sixteen
commemorative stamps issued by An Post in January 2016 to mark
the centenary of the Easter Rising 784
Fig. 2 Patrick Pearse (far right) surrenders on 29 April 1916. He is
accompanied by Elizabeth O’Farrell, but in this famous image nothing
of her body can be seen apart from her feet, which appear next to his 788
Fig. 3 Image from David Bolger’s choreography for the “Mise Éire” part of
the Centenary concert. (28 March 1916, Bord Gáis Energy Theatre,
Dublin)789
 Introductions/Orientations

Eamonn Jordan and Eric Weitz

The Palgrave Handbook of Contemporary Irish Theatre and Performance was

originally envisaged as a raft of commissioned chapters based on two general
categories. First, a large collection of sustained scholarly arguments covering a
thematized group of people, companies, theatres and other entities relevant to
the volume’s title. Second, a gathering of short pieces by practitioners reflect-
ing upon process—creative and pragmatic—regarding a past project of per-
sonal import. This second type of chapter would afford a number of people
whose work would likely come to attention in the longer pieces the chance to
think back upon a seminal production in his or her professional journey and to
try to articulate something of that moment through seasoned eyes. This two-­
pronged initial model was neat and straightforward, conveying a sense of orga-
nized academic industry that would contribute to a clean proposal.
We, the editors, aspired from the start to think beyond the strictures imposed
by encyclopaedic coverage—beyond the usual analytical “hard borders” (to
draw resonance from a phrase very much of the current moment as negotia-
tions for Great Britain’s exit from the European Union—known popularly as
‘Brexit’—continue in early 2018, carrying important implications for the ease
or difficulty of future border crossings between Northern Ireland and the
Republic of Ireland), which we came to realize have been stamped on academic
thought by familiar, timely and discrete critical positions. As will be evident
from the chapter titles in the table of contents, we did not altogether abandon
these critical lenses, but neither did we allow ourselves to be enslaved by them.

E. Jordan (*)
School of English, Drama and Film, University College Dublin, Dublin, Ireland
e-mail: eamonn.jordan@ucd.ie
E. Weitz
School of Creative Arts, Trinity College Dublin, Dublin, Ireland
e-mail: weitzer@tcd.ie

© The Author(s) 2018 1

E. Jordan, E. Weitz (eds.), The Palgrave Handbook of
Contemporary Irish Theatre and Performance,
https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-58588-2_1
2 E. JORDAN AND E. WEITZ

Through our invitations to potential contributors we hoped to attract a

spread of sensibilities, so that previously unexamined surfaces would come to
light both directly and by refraction through other entries. As it happened, and
not undesirably, our collection came to acquire a mind of its own, showing few
signs of categorical orderliness. Gradually, and with patient support from
Palgrave, we surrendered to a more open model of invitation and assignment
for prospective chapters. From the beginning, we approached potential writers
with chapter titles in mind, but we soon realized that the themes and stances of
the chapters would be constrained by what we could think of in advance, so in
some cases we invited potential contributors to propose subjects of interest to
them and to comment, revise, reimagine or even propose alternatives. We
relaxed our thinking on what subject matter or voice might be appropriate in a
long or short chapter or, indeed, the necessity to meet a word count.
We came to realize that the practice-based, or practice-leaning, chapters were
more valuable in their own right than we originally anticipated. Practitioners
think as hard as they work and are diligent researchers. The recording and artic-
ulation of their experiences represent important contributions to the archive of
performance-related literature and are of no less scholarly value than academic
analysis or historical documentation of theatrical productions. We sought other
insights from spectators and social observers, which merit attention and would
fall through the cracks of a more regimented approach.
We decided that a productive consideration of contemporary theatre and
performance could stand in the present while taking within its gaze the preced-
ing sixty years or so (see below), reaching further back when fruitful. You will
find chapters of varying lengths, some of which theorize, some of which histo-
ricize, some of which summarize, some of which scrutinize, and many of which
do more than one of the above. You will find pieces guided by personal reflec-
tions of varying kinds and lengths, and not always from the people involved.
We have, fortuitously, ended up with a wide range of generational voices from
a practitioner-to-scholar spectrum.
The handbook, then, presents a certain amount of information and thought
particular to theatre and performance in an Irish context, but would serve most
handily as a spur to discussions on the subject. Each chapter comes with a full
bibliography (when the use of sources applies), so in most cases the reader has
ample opportunity to pursue avenues of interest.
We have abandoned any pretence towards a “complete” enumeration of
practitioners, companies and other entities relevant to the title of this volume.
The organizing principle of this handbook means that some people, theatres,
companies and other features of the theatrical landscape receive attention from
more than one viewpoint. We also acknowledge that the vicissitudes of the
editorial process for a project like this have led to the omission of players we
earnestly wish we had noted. We realize the strong possibility that blind spots
will come to light only after the collection has acquired concrete form. We have
tried to index as usefully as possible, but for the sake of space have adopted a
general policy that declines most single-reference entries.
 INTRODUCTIONS/ORIENTATIONS 3

All of this brings us to the ultimate content of the handbook: a multiform

sweep of theoretical, historical, practical and personal glimpses of aspects of a
landscape roughly characterised as contemporary Irish theatre and perfor-
mance. There is, of course, no prescribed or ideal method of approaching this
volume. In an attempt to advance some manner of structure rather than a sin-
gle string of fifty-nine chapters, we have adopted four section headings for the
purpose of clustering pieces with certain affinities: Histories, Close-ups,
Interfaces, and Reflections. Within each section, we have sought to order the
chapters so that successive contributions can speak to one another; in other
cases, we have consciously assigned seemingly tangential chapters to different
sections. Some readers may wade into a particular section, while others may
prefer to see where their curiosity takes them, as this or that chapter title strikes
their fancies. Having by this point offered some background, rationale and
advice, we will supply some general context for the chapters that follow.

Theatrical Contexts
This part of the introduction offers a brief overview of the political, socio-­
economic and cultural contexts of the period under analysis, it makes some
tentative observations about texts and performances, and signals some of the
evolutions that have taken place over the sixty or so years under the focus of
this collection. We also point to existing publications that could help broaden,
deepen and otherwise supplement the perspectives articulated by the chapters
in this handbook. (We do not provide a summary of the volume’s chapters,
sometimes undertaken for a compilation like this.)
Undoubtedly, the history of Irish theatre is complex. Publications in the
field take as their starting points the establishment of the Irish Literary Theatre
in 1899 by Augusta Gregory, Edward Martyn, and W.B. Yeats; the establish-
ment of Inghinidhe na hÉireann/Daughters of Ireland in 1900 by Maude
Gonne; or the founding of the Ulster Branch of the Irish Literary Theatre by
Bulmer Hobson and David Parkhill in 1902, reconstituted as the Ulster
Literary Theatre in 1904.1 Most commentators focus on the foundation in
1904 of the Irish National Theatre Society—or as it is better known, the Abbey
Theatre—by Gregory and Yeats.2 There is, of course, a far longer history that
is not limited to the establishment of theatre venues in Dublin from the early
seventeenth-century onward.3 This would cover other forms of indigenous
theatrical practice including, in addition to plays, the games, rituals and cere-
monies that come under the broader rubric of performance.4
However, because of the local and international attention warranted by the
work of Augusta Gregory, Sean O’Casey, John Millington Synge and
W.B. Yeats during the Abbey Theatre’s formative years, and because of the
ongoing legacies of these writers, the early Abbey is the most functional start-
ing point for many scholars. The controversies surrounding the premieres of
Synge’s The Playboy of the Western World (1907) and O’Casey’s The Plough
4 E. JORDAN AND E. WEITZ

and the Stars (1926) remain critical talking points to this day; each is fascinat-
ing for different reasons, as each exposes particular cultural and political
tensions.
Outraged responses to the first staging of Synge’s Playboy and the riots
that followed seem to have stemmed from tensions in the play that threat-
ened the values and perspectives that were politically, religiously and socially
dominant in Ireland at the time. Given that O’Casey’s Plough offers a harsh
view of revolutionary nationalism to which many did not subscribe, it is
understandable that it caused such offence when it was first staged. It con-
tinues to exercise critics, many of whom have allegiances to a different brand
of politics to O’Casey’s. Yet, for some critics, this period produced a notable
body of work limited by its allegiances to cultural nationalism, and by its
subservience to the agenda of the elite classes.5 Dublin-born Samuel
Beckett’s writings for theatre were hugely influenced by works of Synge and
O’Casey, which he saw during his early adult life in Dublin.6 The influences
of Irish-born playwrights Oscar Wilde and George Bernard Shaw upon
world theatre remain significant, yet, interestingly, their Irish backgrounds
are often occluded, repressed or even erased in discussions and analysis of
their works.
Although anything but a unified tradition, the overall standing of the work
of all of these playwrights is evident not only in its initial impact, but also in
the influence it has had on international peers and those who followed.
Enticing opportunities and challenges remain to those staging their plays
across a range of contemporary contexts up to, and more than, a hundred
years later.7 Their works have been interpreted in various ways, including
gendered interventions in the staging of The Importance of Being Earnest, or
the supplementation of texts with contemporary features, as Seán Holmes
did with a production of The Plough and the Stars at the Abbey in 2016. To
date, however, productions of their works are seldom reconceived with sig-
nificant textual deconstructions or reinventions. Bisi Adigun and Roddy
Doyle’s version of The Playboy of the Western World (2007) is a good example
of such a reinvention, as they relocated the play to contemporary West
Dublin, where Christy Mahon becomes Christopher Malomo, a Nigerian
refugee.
Their longevity may well account for the plays’ ability to emanate an aura
of relevance through successive generations, as well as the reassurance,
comfort and even pride that has arisen from people’s familiarity with the
texts. But this relevance is surely also a result of the complexity of the writ-
ing, the challenges they pose for actors and directors, and the ways that the
dilemmas and conflicts faced down by their characters materialize to strik-
ing effect under difficult and fraught circumstances. In addition, there are
notable and compelling intricacies of form in these writings, often realised
through an innovative mingling of genres by the likes of Gregory, O’Casey
and Beckett. Critical responses to this body of work are informed by diverse
 INTRODUCTIONS/ORIENTATIONS 5

theoretical frames. The plays by Gregory, O’Casey and Beckett have proven
rich and diverse enough to bear the burden of persistent and varied critical
scrutiny.
Those who followed the early Abbey writers, including Teresa Deevy, Denis
Johnston, Mary Manning and Lennox Robinson, each became canonical fig-
ures in different ways. The Northern Irish playwrights worth noting from this
early period include Joseph Campbell, Alice Milligan, George Shiels, St. John
Ervine, Rutherford Mayne, Gerald MacNamara and Joseph Tomelty. The
eventual founding of the Lyric Players Theatre in 1951 by Mary O’Malley in
Belfast was also a significant initiative.

The Briefest Political Contexts

The writings and performances of the early twentieth century ran in tandem
with—and some would argue influenced, if not shaped—the wider political
realities that were emerging across the island. The rebellion of Easter of 1916
saw a bitter and overwhelming defeat for the Irish revolutionaries. However,
the poor treatment of those captured by or who had surrendered to the British
forces swung public opinion towards both the rebels and the revolutionary
act itself. In the main, public opinion had initially been hostile towards the
revolution. The Government of Ireland Act of 1920 would partition the
island and The Anglo-Irish Treaty of 1922 that followed the War of
Independence (1919–1921) led to a harrowing civil war between two rival
factions. One side could not countenance a divided island under any condi-
tions. The other saw the treaty as the best deal available, a stepping stone to a
united Ireland.8
The twenty-six county Free State was a complex socio/political entity,
shaped by its joy in ridding itself of colonial subjugation after close to 800 years
of occupation. It also resulted in power transitioning from the British state to
an indigenous Irish bourgeois/elite, a cohort keen to serve its own agenda by
reinforcing its rank and status and perpetuating its own privileges. As the
nascent state evolved, conservative social and isolationist economic policies and
the persistence of a mutually self-serving church/state relationship meant that
socio-economic advances were negligible for most citizens.
Indeed, the failure to meet the aspirations of the proclamation of 1916, or
to instigate the ambitions of the 1922 Constitution, left the country in a con-
formist position. The Constitution of 1937, despite its rigor and many fine
ambitions, remains a bugbear into the twenty-first century, particularly because
of how it reinforces gender hierarchies and promotes patriarchal subservience.
Yet there has been far less critical probing into how this Constitution substanti-
ates gross material inequalities. Ireland’s neutrality during the Second World
War still divides opinion.
While the region of Ulster experienced a more advanced industrialization,
especially throughout the nineteenth century, the establishment of the
6 E. JORDAN AND E. WEITZ

Northern Irish state was a major turning point in the history of the island. The
province of Ulster was divided, three counties to be included within the Free
State, and six counties would remain part of the United Kingdom.
After the Second World War, the political situation in Northern Ireland was
fraught and complex. There was an intermittent campaign by the Irish
Republican Army, political practices such as Gerrymandering (the shaping of
political boundaries to ensure unionist election dominance), a series of state
practices that left many Catholics and Nationalists discriminated against when
accessing healthcare, education, employment and social welfare provision.
Sectarianism, civic unrest, internment, and crucial events such as (what became
known as) Bloody Sunday on 28 January 1972 (the killing of fourteen people
and the wounding of many others by the British army during their attack on a
civil rights protest) led to a sectarian political situation that seemed
intractable.9
The Troubles, as the period from 1968 to 1994 came to be known, saw over
3,000 people die, twice as many injured, and exponentially more impacted by
violence.10 The Downing Street Declaration of 1994 and the Good Friday
Agreement of 1998 were landmarks in a Peace Process that brought ceasefires
from Loyalist and Republican paramilitaries, the decommissioning of weapons,
and a series of protracted negotiations that led to an evolving political settle-
ment. Peace brought huge dividends, even if the formal cessation of the con-
flict did little to heal either community divisions or the wounds of
many—especially those bereaved, injured or traumatized. Indeed, conflict situ-
ations elsewhere have since looked to Northern Ireland for the strategies
employed in the evolution of a political resolution.
During the Troubles and even during the post-conflict period, many
Northern Irish plays remained occupied with contentious ideologies, sectarian-
ism, breaches of human rights, the sinister actions effectively sanctioned by the
state, the intransigence of some political sensibilities, and the lingering influ-
ence of paramilitary organizations and their associated criminal elites. Legacy
issues continue to complicate the political situation. As Mark Phelan notes, “[i]
f Troubles drama has been largely defined by the expectation that artists deal
with the conflict, perhaps post-conflict theatre in the North can be similarly
defined by an expectation that it should play some sort of role in the processes
of truth and reconciliation”.11 Teya Sepunick’s Theatre of Witness project is a
pertinent example. Troubles plays are not going away; neither are they the sole
prerogative of Irish writers. English-born Jez Butterworth’s The Ferryman
(2017), set in 1981 during the Hunger Strikes, deals with the disappeared,
paramilitary intimidation, and scrutinizes but also maintains a particular sym-
pathy for a republican position.
Stacey Gregg’s work includes and moves well beyond the Northern Irish
conflict. Her work in Shibboleth (2015) deals with peace-wall extensions, migra-
tion and post-conflict politics; Overdrive (2013) considers medical and techno-
logical augmentation; Perve (2011) dramatizes the impact of deception and
manipulation through the use of social media platforms; and Scorch (2015) is
 INTRODUCTIONS/ORIENTATIONS 7

a monologue about gender curiosity and the legal implications of gender fraud,
narrated by a female teenager, Kes, who wants to be a boy—and deals with how
Kes establishes an online relationship with a young woman, who assumes Kes
is male.
Poverty and mass emigration were significant features in the Republic of
Ireland of the 1950s. The end of that decade saw a shift in economic policy,
and the Seán Lemass-led Government oversaw a period of industrial develop-
ment. This was prompted by a key document written by civil servant,
T.K. Whitaker, which led to the First Programme for Economic Expansion
under the Industrial Development Act in 1958. Donogh O’Malley’s announce-
ment of universal free second-level education in 1966 was a game changer in
terms of educational access and social mobility.
Ireland’s accession to the European Economic Community in 1972 was
another important advancement. The global oil crisis of the early 1970s led to
another recessionary period in Ireland. Major government indebtedness saw
the 1980s blighted by economic stagnation, industrial unrest, high levels of
inflation, substantial levels of unemployment, and, again, mass emigration. In
the early part of the 1990s, the Republic of Ireland went through a hugely
significant economic boom; this period was euphemistically known as the
Celtic Tiger (1993–2008). The boom brought radical changes to society,
which included a Peace Process dividend, more liberal-leaning social legisla-
tion, a decrease in the influence of a Catholic church that had been blighted by
scandal, enhanced education provision, better employment opportunities
thanks to Direct Foreign Investment, rises in standards of living, an increase in
immigration, better travel opportunities and extensive globalization. Most of
these changes were welcomed. Many citizens were the first generation in their
families to own their own homes, and, temporarily, emigration was no longer
an imperative but an option.
However, access to cheap credit from international money markets, and the
opportunity to increase profitability, turned the banking sector from its tradi-
tional prudent orientation into a reckless, often rogue, industry. Government
policy was increasingly driven by neo-liberal ideology, leading to less regula-
tion, lower taxes, and a reluctance for economic intervention by the state, all of
which increasingly left transactions (and not only financial ones) at the mercy
of market mechanisms. Prosperity for all proved a myth—all boats did not rise,
by any means. Poverty was not eradicated, even though economic indicators
trumpeted a boom time.
The greed, narcissism and conspicuous consumption associated with this
period have been well outlined, but it is worth considering how reckless behav-
iour and excesses could have been prompted by the fact that previous genera-
tions never had access to such material resources or economic freedoms. The
delusion that things could only get better was constantly reinforced by media
soundbites and government pronouncements. And so, the global financial cri-
sis of 2008 and the bursting of the Irish property bubble led to economic
collapse in late 2008, although key economic indicators were already flag-
ging problems at least a year earlier. A bank guarantee was offered by the
8 E. JORDAN AND E. WEITZ

government to depositors and those bond holders who lent money to the
bank. A massive bank bailout, huge increases in national debt, suffocating
personal debt for many, negative equity, a significant rise in unemployment
figures, business and personal insolvencies and, again, mass emigration were
the fallout from the economic collapse.
A temporary loss of economic sovereignty ensued. After the government
requested intervention and financial bailout from the Troika (the European
Union, European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund)
Ireland’s national debt spiralled, and whatever rainy-day funds had been squir-
reled away disappeared. Inadequate governance, prompted by the persistence
of a neo-liberal rationale, was a substantial part of the problem. Government
did little to stabilize the economy or to put a halt to the rampant property
speculation that gripped the country.
While Northern Irish plays appeared to be Troubles-obsessed in the main,
in contrast few plays that premiered in the Republic during the Celtic Tiger
period spoke directly to this period of plenty. Indeed, the most successful plays
of this period were historic in focus, and poverty-orientated in their dramatur-
gies. However, the post-boom environment saw multiple works all too willing
to dramatize the fallout from the economic collapse. McPherson’s works, The
Veil (2011), even though it is set in 1822, and The Night Alive (2013) are
pertinent examples of post-boom plays.

Dramaturgical and Performance Practices

For the sake of clarity and convenience, we identify the contemporary period
of Irish Theatre and performance as starting from the post-Second World War
era,12 even if it is only from the late 1950s and early 1960s that a significant
new generation of writers emerged.13 Brendan Behan, Eugene McCabe, Brian
Friel, John B. Keane, Thomas Kilroy, Hugh Leonard, and Tom Murphy were
the most prominent figures to arise during this early contemporary period.
These playwrights would have their work widely produced, garnering substan-
tial critical acclaim nationally and internationally. Behan’s plays brought a
remarkable vivacity to the stage, partly prompted by his work with Joan
Littlewood at the Theatre Royal, Stratford East in London. Kilroy’s writings
stand out for many reasons, not least for his inclination to allow his dramaturgy
to be open to the influence of radical theatrical forms, ranging from Brechtian
technique to Bunraku puppet theatre. Keane is noted for transposing a basic
naturalism by way of folk drama, and Leonard is respected not only for his
willingness to experiment with form, for his championing of comedy, but also
because of his commitments to serve as the Abbey’s Literary Editor (1976–1977)
and as programme director of the Dublin Theatre Festival (1979). Of course,
Leonard’s play Da (1973) won four Tony Awards in 1979.
In Northern Ireland, the controversy surrounding Sam Thompson’s Over
the Bridge (1960) was an important historical event, arising from the play’s left-­
leaning ideology and exposure of rampant sectarianism in the pre-Troubles era.
 INTRODUCTIONS/ORIENTATIONS 9

As Ophelia Byrne notes, “[i]n the difficult 1970s and early 1980s, plays were
staged at the Lyric by writers such as John Boyd, Patrick Galvin, Christina
Reid, Graham Reid, Stewart Parker and Martin Lynch which directly addressed
the socio-political realities around them”.14
Stewart Parker exerted a profound impact upon playwriting on this island in
a life cut tragically short by cancer, writing with inspired dramaturgical inven-
tion from a Northern Irish orientation, from his first stage play, Spokesong
(1975), and including Catchpenny Twist (1977), Northern Star (1984) and
Pentecost (1987).15 Later, Anne Devlin’s blending of gender into class antago-
nisms and sectarian politics in plays like Ourselves Alone (1985) and After Easter
(1994), relies on mystical and imaginative ways of evading or circumventing
the real by theatricalizing a shunt into an alternative dimension, to cross bor-
ders and boundaries. (It should be emphasized that a simple Green/Orange
binary oversimplifies the politics we are discussing—there are, of course, mul-
tiple communities in existence, not ones that simply align as Nationalist/
Republican/Catholic and Loyalist/Unionist/Protestant.16)
Brian Friel and Frank McGuinness regularly positioned their writing in rela-
tion to Northern Ireland, its histories and conflicts, and the consequences of
British imperialism. The writings of Murphy and Friel stand out for various
reasons: Both forged extensive careers, both kept challenging themselves as
writers, and both became benchmark writers for so many others in Ireland and
elsewhere. Not surprisingly, several chapters in this handbook include reflec-
tions upon their work.
To that end, Friel’s Philadelphia, Here I Come! (1964) is an important land-
mark in twentieth-century Irish theatre. Within the frame of a more traditional
play, it splits between two actors the play’s main character, Gar O’Donnell,
represented as Gar Private and Gar Public. Friel’s Faith Healer (1979) is
another groundbreaking play, which established the “monologue play” as a
popular contemporary form. Three characters offer different accounts of key
events in their shared lives, and two characters narrate from beyond the grave.
And of course, Translations (1980) and Dancing at Lughnasa (1990) are
works of world renown and influence. The former is known for the conceit that
the Irish characters are supposedly speaking in their native Gaelic tongue,
which the English characters cannot understand, whereas in performance, they
are speaking not Gaelic, but Hiberno-English. The latter takes a conventional
family situation and distorts it with acts of narrative recollection that are incon-
sistent to the extent that they embody the reassurance, need, unreliability and
instability of memory itself. Friel’s role in the establishment of the Field Day
Theatre company with Stephen Rea is also significant. The company’s remit
was to intervene in and reimagine the politics of Northern Ireland and the
Republic of Ireland. The Nationalist/Republican leanings of the company led
to critical disparagements from some quarters.
Murphy has had a varied career, writing initially for an amateur group in
Tuam, Co. Galway, before having A Whistle in the Dark produced in London
at the Theatre Royal in 1961, after its rejection by the Abbey. (The influence
10 E. JORDAN AND E. WEITZ

of A Whistle in the Dark on Harold Pinter’s The Homecoming (1968) has been
considered by many scholars.) Murphy’s groundbreaking work like the
Brechtian Famine (1968) and the surrealistic/impressionistic A Crucial Week
in the Life of a Grocer’s Assistant (1969), are notable and important dramatur-
gical experiments. Later in his career, productions of Conversations on a
Homecoming (1983) and Bailegangaire (1985) would see Murphy as a house
playwright (Writer-in-Association) for Druid Theatre Company. Geraldine
Aron is another playwright who had a number of plays premiered by Druid,
including Same Old Moon (1984), The Donahue Sisters (1990) and My Brilliant
Divorce (2001).
Druid was set up by director/playwright Garry Hynes and two actors, Mick
Lally and Marie Mullen; they had made their initial mark with a memorable
production of Synge’s Playboy of the Western World (1975) and subsequent
stagings of the same play in the early 1980s.17 Sadly, Lally passed away in 2010,
and to this day Mullen plays a hugely influential role in the company’s many
productions; Hynes, apart from a short stint as the Artistic Director of the
Abbey Theatre, remains at the helm of Druid. The emergence of Druid paral-
lels a shift in the policy of the Republic’s Arts Council (An Chomhairle Ealaíon)
to increase its support for theatre in the regions. Many other companies were
to benefit from such a change in policy, as chapters in this Handbook explore.
The 1980s, 1990s and early 2000s would see almost all of the writers men-
tioned above continuing to write and would also see the emergence of a broad and
diverse cohort of writers, including: Sebastian Barry, Dermot Bolger, John Breen,
Patricia Burke Brogan, Mary Elizabeth Burke-Kennedy, Pom Boyd, Marina Carr,
Lucy Caldwell, Daragh Carville, Amy Conroy, Anne Devlin, Neil Donnelly, Claire
Dowling, Roddy Doyle, Dave Duggan, Grace Dyas, Bernard Farrell, Stella Feehily,
Gerard Mannix Flynn, Stacey Gregg, Michael Harding, Declan Hughes, David
Ireland, Rosemarie Jenkinson, Marie Jones, Jennifer Johnston, Deirdre Kinahan,
Tim Loane, Martin Lynch, Owen McCafferty, Martin McDonagh, Rosaleen
McDonagh, Lisa McGee, Frank McGuinness, Tom Mac Intyre, Una McKevitt,
Philip McMahon, Nicola McCarthy, Conor McPherson, Paul Mercier, Gary
Mitchell, Jimmy Murphy, Jim Nolan, Máiréad Ní Ghráda, Joe O’Byrne, Antoine
Ó Flatharta, Donal O’Kelly, Mark O’Rowe, David Rudkin, Ursula Rani Sarma,
Christina Reid, Graham Reid, Arthur Riordan, Billy Roche, Stewart Parker,
Stefanie Preissner, Jim and Peter Sheridan, Abbie Spallen, Gerard (Gerry)
Stembridge, Colin Teevan, Enda Walsh, Michael West and Vincent Woods.
As this is a script-driven writing tradition—and as critical commentaries
grew up around these key playwrights over the past decades—the inputs of
directors, theatre managers, actors, designers and performers are often sig-
nalled and individual productions referenced, but such analysis places insuffi-
cient emphasis on performance as a central factor. There are a few obvious
reasons for this: much of the criticism grew out of those teaching in English
and Languages Departments in universities; and, apart from production images
and reviews, in some cases there is no record of a performance event. Texts
offer the most accurate and stable record of a performance. The absence of
 INTRODUCTIONS/ORIENTATIONS 11

critical methodologies to deal with the ephemerality of performance proved

another obstacle. Usage of and access to video recordings of productions
changed approaches, but still could not preserve some of the vital elements of
live performance—neither could they address the night-to-night variation of a
performance text and the on-the-spot audience response. Analysis of Irish plays
too easily and invariably spoke to and of Ireland, another limiting perspective.
Having attempted a roll call of playwrights, above, the emergence of theatre
companies and theatres from the 1970s forward is also vital to discussions of
contemporary Irish theatre. Such a listing would include ANU, An Taibhdhearc,
Barabbas, Bedrock, Bickerstaffe, Big Telly, Blue Raincoat, Branar, Brokentalkers,
Calypso, Charabanc, CoisCéim, Collapsing Horse, Company SJ, Corcadorca,
Druid, Dubbeljoint, Field Day, Fabulous Beast, Fishamble, Galloglass,
Glasshouse, Graffiti, Irish Modern Dance Theatre, Island, Kabosh, Loose
Canon, Macnas, Meridian, Passion Machine, Muted Cupid, Red Kettle, Rough
Magic, Operating Theatre, Ouroborous, Pan Pan, Performance Corporation,
Prime Cut, Replay, Smashing Times, Siamsa Tíre, the National Folk Theatre,
Storytellers, TEAM Educational Theatre, Tinder Box, The Corn Exchange,
THEATREclub, THISISPOPBABY, Wet Paint, and Yew Tree. Companies like
Desperate Optimists and Gare St Lazare Players were formed outside Ireland
by Irish performance makers.
Directors, designers and actors are of equal consequence in any survey of
Irish Theatre. The importance of people like Hilton Edwards and Tyrone
Guthrie to Friel’s development are well documented, and we have briefly sig-
nalled the significance of Hynes’s contribution to Murphy’s career already.
Patrick Mason’s contribution to Irish theatre cannot be undervalued, having
directed the premieres of work as varied and significant as Kilroy’s Talbot’s Box
(1977), McGuiness’s The Factory Girls (1982) and Observe the Sons of Ulster
Marching Towards the Somme (1985), Murphy’s The Gigli Concert (1983),
Stewart Parker’s Pentecost (1987), Thomas Kilroy’s The Secret Fall of Constance
Wilde (1997) and Marina Carr’s By the Bog of Cats (1998). The production for
which he received most acclaim is Friel’s Dancing at Lughnasa (1990). Mason
also served two terms as artistic director of the Abbey theatre (1993–1999).18
Alongside Mason, actor Tom Hickey and designers Bronwen Casson and
later Monica Frawley, were crucial collaborators with Tom Mac Intyre.
Inasmuch as the island of Ireland is the holding frame for much of the work
discussed here, it is imperative to see that work not only within the confines
of a national tradition and context, but also from an international perspec-
tive—especially as globalized culture has led to the increasing problematisa-
tion of national identities. Like Irish-American Deirdre O’Connell, who
brought her Stanislavsky-based training experiences from New York to
Ireland, many people who make or have made theatre in Ireland were born
elsewhere. Key figures like the Gate Theatre’s Hilton Edwards and Micheál
Mac Liammóir, born Alfred Willmore, who reinvented himself as Irish, were
born in England. Likewise, Patrick Mason and Selina Cartmell, the new
Artist Director of the Gate Theatre, were born in England. And writer/
12 E. JORDAN AND E. WEITZ

actor/scholar Elizabeth Kuti, has written about the challenges of being

born outside Ireland, yet is perceived to be working within that
tradition.19
The categorization of Martin McDonagh as an Irish playwright has raised all
kinds of questions, even objections, not least from the writer himself, who was
born in London to Irish-born parents. A writer like Gary Mitchell, born in
Belfast in the unionist tradition, unsurprisingly does not think of himself as an
Irish writer.20 Mitchell’s early career is notable for work staged by the Abbey
Theatre. Somewhat differently, early in his career Conor McPherson refuted
the notion that he was an Irish playwright, although more recently he has
regarded this self-positioning as naive and has become increasingly aware of
how his Irish background shaped his work. Two notable productions of The
Weir—at the Royal Court in 1997 directed by Ian Rickson and at the Donmar
Warehouse in 2013 directed by Josie Rourke—had actors with Irish and non-­
Irish backgrounds, had design inputs from non-Irish practitioners, and were
seen by audiences around the world. A play written by an Irish writer and set
in Ireland becomes something altogether different when staged by companies
with some or no associations with the country, or with little concern for its
“Irishness” (in, for example, productions of Marina Carr’s work in the
Netherlands or McDonagh’s plays in Turkey or the Middle-East).
In both past and current times, the reputations of Irish companies have been
enhanced by productions toured abroad. The Abbey Theatre toured to Britain
and America almost from its founding. The reputation of the Gate Theatre is
partially built on the successes of its tours, again going back to its early years,
under the stewardship of Hilton Edwards and Micheál Mac Liammóir, who
took work to Europe from the early 1930s forward. More recently under
Michael Colgan’s directorship, the Gate mounted key productions of plays by
Brian Friel, Harold Pinter and Sean O’Casey to be staged in Dublin and abroad.
The Gate’s co-productions of Conor McPherson’s plays with the Royal Court
is also significant.
Part of Field Day’s remit was to tour work to non-traditional venues across
the island; they also brought their work to London in partnership with the
Hampstead Theatre, Royal Court and the National Theatre. Apart from the
Abbey, Gate and Druid Theatres, companies like Charabanc, the Lyric,
Galloglass, Rough Magic, Dubbeljoint and Passion Machine brought work to
various London venues, such as Riverside Studios, Drill Hall, The Bush,
Tricycle, Rough Court, Donmar Warehouse, and Almedia Theatres. Work also
toured beyond London, as well, Mac Intyre’s plays going to Russia, for exam-
ple.21 Pan Pan have produced work in China, while Company SJ have trans-
planted site-specific and environmental readings of Beckett to New York City.
Druid Theatre Company has always been active in touring. In the 1980s,
tours of Synge’s Playboy of the Western World enhanced the company’s reputa-
tion, and recently their production of Enda Walsh’s The Walworth Farce (2006)
toured to Britain, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, and the United States.
Druid’s concept projects, DruidSynge (2004) and DruidMurphy (2012) have
 INTRODUCTIONS/ORIENTATIONS 13

been large scale, ambitious initiatives, with DruidShakespeare (2015) touring

Ireland and New York.
Apart from Druid’s co-productions, with the Royal Court, of McDonagh’s
Leenane trilogy, and the transfers of The Beauty Queen of Leenane and The
Lonesome West to Broadway, Druid has twice toured with McDonagh’s The
Cripple of Inishmaan in 2008–2009 and 2011.22 Additionally, Hynes’s twenty-­
year anniversary production of McDonagh’s The Beauty Queen of Leenane
toured across America and Ireland in 2016. The Druid/Royal Court co-­
production of Marina Carr’s unnerving work, On Raftery’s Hill (2000), staged
at the Kennedy Centre in Washington DC, was programmed as part of a cele-
bration of Irish arts (a thematic umbrella under which it may not have stood
entirely comfortably).
Pat Kinevane’s Silent (2011), directed by Jim Culleton for Fishamble, has
toured Europe, the US and Australia, picking up numerous accolades includ-
ing an Olivier Award in 2016. Brokentalker’s The Blue Boy (2011) and Pan
Pan’s shows, including The Crumb Trail (2008) and The Seagull and Other
Birds (2014) are other examples of work that has toured productively. As
­suggested above, Pan Pan has regularly collaborated with international part-
ners, and their work in Germany and China is notable. When such non-tradi-
tional work by the likes of Brokentalkers or Pan Pan is performed in Europe, it
stands up to the scrutiny of peers and critics. It is received not simply as work
grounded or inflected by its country of origin, but lauded for how it affirms,
aligns with (or fails to) and contests broader international theatrical practices
and processes.

Versions/Adaptations/Appropriations
Writers and directors adapt, translate or perform versions of existing work for a
variety of reasons. Sometimes it may be out of curiosity, at others it is about
allowing another’s work to influence their creative writing or to pursue a the-
matic connection; it may be about working on a project that boosts their repu-
tation; and, of course, it may be pragmatically opportune to undertake a
commission that is financially rewarding.
Adaptations are likely to cast marquee actors in central roles if the work
aspires to commercial reward or artistic prestige. Staging adaptations of tried
and tested work is presumably less risky than performances of new writing. The
adaptations of Greek drama by Irish writers has been an important enterprise
in the history of Irish theatre. Indeed, the adaptations of Greek plays by Tom
Paulin, Derek Mahon and Seamus Heaney were central to the Field Day initia-
tive. Greek drama has been used to comment on the conflict in Northern
Ireland, and this use has been addressed by many commentators to date.
Somewhat differently, Marina Carr has suffused her dramaturgy with various
Greek myths, and Billy Roche has done likewise.
Of contemporary significance, Frank McGuinness’s versions of Greek
plays commissioned by Irish and English companies has been prominent
14 E. JORDAN AND E. WEITZ

achievements. His version of Electra, featuring Zoë Wanamaker at the Donmar

Warehouse in 1997, and more recently the Old Vic in 2015 with Kristin Scott
Thomas, were highly regarded productions, as was his version of Oedipus
(2008), which starred Ralph Fiennes at London’s National Theatre.
McGuinness’s reputation has been bolstered by his versions of Ibsen and
Chekhov plays, as well, and his work on Ibsen in particular has been important,
including versions of Peer Gynt (1988), A Doll’s House (1996), Rosmersholm
(1987) and John Gabriel Borkman (2010).23 Friel, Murphy and Kilroy have
also adapted a range of classic plays by Ibsen and Chekhov. Kilroy’s Christ
Deliver Us! (2010) at the Abbey, inspired by Frank Wedekind’s Spring
Awakening, is a notable transformation of a classic work into an Irish context.
Adaptations of novels are also popular. Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina was recently
adapted by Carr (2016), Saltykov-Shchedrin’s The Golovlyov Family reworked
as The Last Days of a Reluctant Tyrant (2009) by Tom Murphy, and Friel’s
work on both Turgenev’s Father and Sons (1987) and A Month in the Country
has been widely produced. Dostoevsky’s The Brothers Karamazov (1992) was
adapted by Enda Walsh as Delirium (2008); Michael West adapted Vladimir
Nabokov’s Lolita (2002) for the stage as did Declan Hughes for Wilkie Collins’s
The Woman in White (1986); while Olwen Fouéré’s riverrun (2013) derives
directly from an extract of James Joyce’s Finnegans Wake. Blue Raincoat’s pro-
duction history includes multiple adaptations of various novels and biographies,
directed by Niall Henry, with Joycelyn Clarke playing a major role as adaptor/
dramaturg on work ranging from Lewis Carroll to Flann O’Brien.

Across Platforms
Increasingly over the past few decades actors have sought to ply their trade on
stage, screen and television, while writers, directors and designers increasingly
move between various media. Similarly, it is not uncommon for practitioners to
wear different hats, working interchangeably as actors, directors, dramaturgs,
playwrights, novelists, poets and screenwriters. A handful of examples are suffi-
cient here. Hugh Leonard has had success across various artforms, including
radio, fiction, journalism, television and film. Sebastian Barry is an accomplished
novelist, poet and playwright. Emma Donoghue is a novelist and playwright.
Paula Meehan is foremost a poet, yet she has made some important interventions
in theatre. Gerard Stembridge has moved fluidly between theatre, television, film
and fiction writing. Frank McGuinness has always published poetry and written
for television and screen, he has had two novels published, Arimathea (2013) and
The Woodcutter and his Family (2017). Stella Feehily started out as an actor and
became a playwright, as has Elaine Murphy, Pat Kinevane and many others.
Pauline McLynn, a veteran actor of stage, radio and screen—perhaps most widely
known for her portrayal of Mrs Doyle in the Father Ted (1995–1998) television
series—is also a novelist. Richard Dormer is a particularly good example: he
trained as an actor, is remembered for a remarkable, award-winning performance
as Younger Pyper in McGuinness’s Observe the Sons of Ulster Marching Towards the
Another random document with
no related content on Scribd:
De Herstelde Gemeente, is er nog eene Luthersche Kerk (naamlijk
voor de uitgewekenen, of de Herstelden,) alhier gebouwd, ter plaatse
alwaar het Dolhuis gestaan heeft: ’t is een ruim gebouw, doch zonder
eenigen cieraad.

De Remonstranten hebben hier ter stede een aartig kerkjen, op de

Keizersgracht bij de Prinsenstraat: er is een goed orgel in.

De volgende zijn de Doopsgezinde Kerken: van de Vereenigde

Vlaamsche- en Waterlandsche, het Lam, dus genoemd naar eene
brouwerij van dien naam welke er weleer stond: De kerk bij de toren,
om dat zij bij de Jan Roodepoorts toren staat; langen tijd heeft deeze
den naam van de Spijker gedragen, om dat zij gebouwd is op eene
plaats alwaar weleer een spijker-pakhuis stond: De Zon, behoorende
aan de afgezonderde Vlaamsche Doopsgezinden: alle deeze kerkjens
zijn wel klein, maar echter aan het oogmerk zeer voldoende: weleer
hadden de oude Vlaamingen nog een kerk, De Kruikjens, dus
genoemd naar een herberg van dien naam daar naast staande; en de
Vriesche Doopsgezinden eene andere, De Arke Noachs genaamd;
doch beiden zijn niet meer in wezen.

De Collegianten vergaderen boven ’t weeshuis dier Gemeente, op de

Keizersgracht over den gewezenen schouwburg.

Nabij de Remonstranten Kerk, hebben de Kwaakers eene

vergaderplaats, kenbaar aan een’ driehoek, die boven den ingang
staat.

In de Houttuinen vergaderen de Hernhutters: ook hebben de

Persiaanen hier ter stede een net kerkjen; er is ook nog een kleine en
nette Grieksche Kerk; op de Oudezijds Voorburgwal; schuin over de
Oude Kerk.

De Portugeesche en Hoogduitsche Jooden, hebben er voords ieder

eene aanzienlijke sijnagoge, die, vooral de eerstgemelde, der
bezichtiginge van den vreemdeling overwaardig zijn.

Ofschoon nu in de meeste Gereformeerde Kerken, zo wel als in de

Oude- en Nieuwe van de Lutherschen, (naamlijk aan het Nieuwe licht
behoorende,) begraaven worde, (die van het Oude licht hebben zig
een kerkhof op Muiderberg verkozen; zie onze beschrijving van dat
dorpjen;) zijn er echter hier ter stede nog vijf groote kerkhoven, aan
afgelegene oorden der stad: de Jooden hebben er drie buiten de stad;
één te Ouderkerk, één te Muiderberg, en één nabij Zeeburg.

Zijn de kerken te Amsteldam, gelijk gebleken is veelen, de verdere

Godsdienstige Gestichten zijn er nog veel talrijker: wij zullen de
voornaamsten met een enkel woord aanstippen. [10]

Het St. Pieters Gasthuis, dat zijnen naam ontleent van één der
Gasthuizen welken weleer hier ter stede waren, komt eerst in
aanmerking: het was in oude tijde de Kloosters der Oude en Nieuwe
Nonnen: alles wat hierin gevonden wordt is ongemeen aan het
oogmerk voldoende; het heeft zijne eigene bakkerij en brouwerij, ook is
er de stads Apotheek in geplaatst: even binnen de groote poort is een
Beiërt, alwaar de bedelaars en arme vreemdelingen drie nachten om
niet kunnen logeeren, ontvangende des avonds en morgens ook spijs
en drank.

Het tegenwoordige Verbandhuis, ook in het Gasthuis zijnde, was

weleer het Pesthuis, dat omtrent den jaare 1616 van daar naar buiten
de Leidsche poort verplaatst, en te klein geworden zijnde, in 1630
weder verplaatst werd, daar het thans nog gezien wordt, mede buiten
de Leidsche poort, een goed stuk wegs landwaards in gelegen: in 1732
is het geheel verbrand; doch ’t werd terstond weder herbouwd, juist
200 voeten lang en breed, en rondsom met een graft omgeven: ter
zijde heeft het een eigen kerkhof, waarop ook sommigen met den dood
gestraften begraven worden—Toen het Dolhuis weggenomen zoude
worden, ter bouwinge van een kerk voor de Herstelde Luthersche
Gemeente, werd aan dit huis een ruimen vleugel gebouwd, die thans
voor een Dolhuis dient.

Het Oude Mannen- en Vrouwen-huis, staande naast het Gasthuis: dit

werd gebouwd uit een loterij, door de Wethouderschap in 1600
opgesteld: het staat op een gedeelte gronds van ’t Oude
Nonneklooster, is een zeer royaal gebouw, en allezins bezienswaardig:
het is niet aangelegd voor armen maar begunstigden, die er een
aangenaam leven leiden; zij moeten bij het inkomen eenig huisraad,
doch voor hun eigen gebruik, medebrengen—in 1605 werd in hetzelve
een put gegraven van 232 voeten diep; bij welke graaving men
onderscheidene beddingen gronds vond; onder anderen ter diepte van
72 voeten, één voet molm, en niet veel voeten dieper veele schelpen
en zeehoorentjens—voor weinige jaaren is dit gebouw, aan de eene
zijde, (op de Kolveniers burgwal,) met een fraajen steenen poort
vercierd: de doorgang vandaar naar de Oude zijds achterburgwal is
overdekt, heeft aan de eene zijde uitzicht door veele schuifraamen op
de opene plaats of ’t bleekveld van ’t huis, en aan de andere zijde
winkelkasten, die aan galanteriekramers enz. verhuurd worden. [11]

Het Burger weeshuis, was weleer het St. Lucie klooster in 1580
daartoe vervaardigd; vóór dien tijd was het fraai herbouwd Logement
de Keizers kroon, het Burger weeshuis: dit huis is groot, aanzienlijk, en
ook zeer rijk.

Het Diaconie weeshuis in de Zwaanenburgerstraat, is een gebouw van

den jaare 1656; dit is mede ongemeen groot; heeft niet alleen zijn
eigen Apotheek, maar ook artzenijtuin.

Het Diaconie-oude Mannen- en Vrouwen-huis, staande op den

Binnenamstel, doet ieder wegens zijne grootte verbazen; maar meer
nog als men het van binnen bezichtigt, door zijne inrichting en de orde
die er over het algemeen in heerscht: het geheele ligchaam der
Amsteldamsche Diaconie is bewonderens waardig, vooral wegens de
onbedenkelijke sommen die het jaarlijks tot onderhoud noodig heeft.
Achter dit huis ontmoet men het Korvers hofjen, in 1722 gesticht uit
eene ervenis van den Heere Jan Corver, Oud-Schepen en Raad der
stad; het staat onder bestuur van de Gereformeerde Diaconie,
wordende er geene anderen dan gehuwde oude lieden zonder
kinderen in geplaatst: zo één van beiden overlijdt moet de nablijvende
in het Diaconie Oude mannen- of vrouwen-huis, bovengemeld,
overgaan—een dergelijk hofjen is daar nabij nog onlangs gebouwd, uit
eene ervenis van den Heere Van Mekeren.

Doet de Diaconie hier ter stede zo veel aan haare Ledemaaten, de

Huiszittenarmen, dat is die geene ledemaaten zijn, worden mede niet
vergeten; de ruime uitdeelingen aan dezelven geschieden thans op
twee plaatsen, beiden mede overbezienswaardig; naamlijk in het Oude
zijds huis-zittenhuis, en in dat aan de Nieuwe zijde; het eerste staat op
de Korte houtgraft, op den grond van den Leprozen tuin, en het andere
op de Prinsegraft bij de Lelijgraft; dit laatstgemelde heeft in de stad drie
ruime turfschuuren.

De Huiszittenmeesters hebben ook nog een Huiszitten weduwen Hof,

in 1650 op den grond van ’t Oud Karthuizers Klooster gebouwd: het is
almede ongemeen groot: in hetzelve worden niet dan weduwen en
hoogbejaarde dochters onderhouden: de kinderen der weduwen
mogen bij hunne moeders woonen, tot dat de meisjens agttien, en de
jongens negentien jaaren bereikt hebben. [12]

Schoon de gezegde gebouwen, ieders aandacht trekken, door hunne

grootte en talrijkheid van huisgezinnen, zij allen worden nog overtroffen
door het Aalmoeseniers Weeshuis, staande op de Prinsegraft bij de
Leidsche straat, in den jaare 1663 aldaar aangelegd, en naderhand
nog vergroot; ’t is bijna 300 voeten breed, en drie verdiepingen hoog;
en er worden bijna 2000 zielen in onderhouden: het is geschikt voor
weezen, wier ouders geene burgers of ledemaaten der Gereformeerde
Gemeente geweest zijn, als mede voor vondelingen, enz.
De Fransche of Waalsche Gemeente, heeft te Amsteldam mede een
zeer aanzienlijk weeshuis, dat ook voor het onderhouden van oude
mannen en vrouwen dient; ’t staat op den hoek van de Vijzel- en
Prinse-graften, en is een gebouw van den jaare 1669: vóór dien tijd
hadden de Waalen hun Weeshuis in de Laurierstraat: het gezin in dit
huis wordt ongemeen ruim onderhouden, en in de daad vrij beter dan
menig ordentelijk Amsteldamsch burger in staat is zijne kleine
huishouding te doen.

De Engelschen hadden weleer een Weeshuis aan de zuidzijde van de

Loojers graft; doch hetzelve was van weinig betekenis: thans hebben
zij een tamelijk fraai Weeshuis op de Oudezijds achterburgwal, bij de
Stoofsteeg, gesticht in den jaare 1782.

De Roomschen hebben een jongens Weeshuis, staande aan de

zuidzijde van de Laurier-graft; het is een vrij goed gebouw; maar komt
niet in vergelijkinge met het Maagdenhuis van deeze Gemeente, op het
Spui, en dat eerst voor weinige jaaren, in de plaats van het oude,
gebouwd is; dit huis gelijkt veel eer naar een paleis dan naar een
weeshuis—Voorheen had deeze gemeente haar uitdeelings comptoir,
op den Nieuwezijds achterburgwal, bij het Spui, doch thans is hetzelve
verplaatst, op den grond van den afgebranden Schouwburg op de
Keizersgraft bij de Huidestraat; alwaar ’t mede eene zeer aanzienlijke
vertooning maakt—Op het voor weinige jaaren bebouwde
Weesperveld, hebben de Roomschen ook een ruim huis voor arme
oude lieden aangelegd: de pracht waarmede het gebouwd is, doet
duidelijk zien dat deeze gemeente eene ruime beurs moet bezitten.

Aan de noordzijde van de Lauriergraft, ontmoet men het Weeshuis der

Luthersche Gemeente, zijnde hetzelve na het midden der voorgaande
eeuw gebouwd; het is een zeer goed gebouw, [13]en is voor weinige
jaaren nog aanmerkelijk verbeterd—dezelfde Gemeente heeft niet
verre van dat weeshuis, naamlijk in de Konijnenstraat, een Hofjen voor
oude Vrouwen, alwaar de inwooners mede zeer goed onderhouden
worden—maar van ongemeen veel meer aanziens en ruimte is het
Nieuwe bestedelingshuis, door deeze Gemeente gebouwd op het
reeds meergemelde Weesperveld; het is een groot en aanzienlijk
gebouw, waarin de oude lieden ook ongemeen wèl onderhouden
worden.

Het weeshuis der Vereenigde Vlaamsche en Waterlandsche

Doopsgezinden, gemeenlijk het Mennonieten Weeshuis genoemd,
staat op de Prinsegraft, tusschen de Vijzelstraat en Reguliersgraft, en
is gesticht in den jaare 1676; zijnde in alle deelen een aangenaam en
luchtig gebouw, waarin de kinderen ook met allen mogelijken zorg,
gevoed, gekleed, en geleerd worden.—Vooraan in de Elandsstraat had
dezelfde Gemeente weleer haar Oude Vrouwenhuis; doch hetzelve is
in 1759 geplaatst, in de Kerkstraat, achter het Weeshuis voornoemd.

Die van de Collegianten, hebben hun Weeshuis, van ouds de Oranje

appel genoemd, ter plaatse alwaar zij hunne vergadering houden, zie
hier vóór.

Onder de godsdienstige gestichten ter deezer stede kunnen ook nog

de volgende geteld worden, als,

Het Stads zijdewindhuis, geplaatst op den Cingel boven het stads

magazijn: hier worden jonge meisjens van 8 tot 14 jaaren, en wier
ouders van de Huiszittenmeesters, of gelijk men zegt, van de stad, en
ook die, wier ouders van de Diaconie trekken, met het winden van zijde
aan werk en geld geholpen, maar middelerwijl ook in het leezen,
schrijven, en de gronden van den Godsdienst onderwezen.

Het Begijnen-hof, in de Kalverstraat, alwaar, gelijk wij reeds zeiden, de

Engelschen hunne Kerk hebben: ’t is reeds een gebouw van den jaare
1389: in 1393 werd het door Hertog Albrecht in bescherminge
genomen: ’t is bebouwd met wooningen voor een zeker tal Begijnen,
die er hunne eigene kerk en Priester hebben: de dochterkens
geneeren zig met allerlei kundig naaldwerk, waarin sommigen van haar
zeer ervaaren zijn.
Het Lazerus of Leprozen-huis, staande bij de St. Anthonies of Jooden
breestraat: sedert de lazerij genoegzaam geheel uit deeze Landen
verdweenen is, dient het Leprozen-huis, voor eenige proveniers, en
sommige simpele lieden. [14]

Van het Dol- of Krankzinnig huis hebben wij reeds gesproken: (zie
boven Bladz. 10).

Het St. Joris hof, staande tegen de oude Waals Kerk: was eertijds het
Pauliniaanen klooster; ’t is nu een Proveniers huis, schoon ’t voorheen
ook voor Leprozen gediend hebbe.

Behalven alle de gemelde gebouwen vindt men hier ter stede nog eene
menigte hofjens en Godsdienstige gestichten, door bijzondere
persoonen van verscheidene Gezinten, met Godsdienstige oogmerken,
aangelegd: de voornaamsten zijn:

Het Deutzen Hofjen, op de Prinsegraft tusschen de Spiegel- en Vijzel-

straat, in 1695 gesticht door Vrouwe Agneta Deutz; er worden oude
vrouwen op geplaatst, die, behalven vrije wooning, 36 guldens aan
geld, 40 mand turf, 20 ℔ boter, 20 ℔ rijst, en 20 ℔ kaarsen jaarlijks
genieten.

Venetia of Maarloops hofjen, naar zijnen stichter Maarloop dus

genoemd, gelijk ook veelen der volgenden den naam naar hunne
stichters draagen: dit hofjen staat in de Elandstraat: behoeftige
Vrouwen van allerleie Gezinten, uitgenomen die van den Roomschen
Godsdienst zijn, genieten er vrije wooning, 50 manden turf, en nog
eenig geld in ’t jaar.

’T Raapen hofjen aan de Noordzijde van de Braak, wordt mede door

behoeftige vrouwen bewoond: zij genieten ieder jaarlijks 25 tonnen turf.

De Huisjens van Bosch staan naast het laatstgemelde Hofjen; in

dezelven wordt alleenlijk vrije wooning genoten.
’T Roeters hofjen, op de Linde graft, is mede gesticht voor behoeftige
vrouwen van den Gereformeerden Godsdienst, die er ook alleenlijk
vrije inwooning genieten.

Het Okkers hofjen in de kromme Palmstraat, bijna geheel herbouwd

zijnde, moet er een gering geld op verwoond worden.

’T Claas Reiniersz. Hofjen op de Keizersgraft, tusschen de Beeren- en

Run-straat, behoort aan de Roomschgezinden, en voert ter spreuke,
Liefde is ’t Fundament; ’t is aangelegd voor Vrouwen die bij ’t inkomen,
voor ééns, honderd guldens moeten geeven.

’T Hamershofjen, is mede voor oude Roomschgezinde Vrouwen.

’T St. Andries Hofjen op de Egelantiersgraft; hier is een kapelletjen in ’t

welk ééns ter week dienst gedaan wordt, door den Capellaan van ’t
Begijnehof.

De Brouwers huisjens in de Wijdesteeg op de Bloemmarkt, behooren

ook aan de Roomschen; als mede [15]

Het Otters hofjen, in de Vinkestraat, en

De Zeven keurvorsten in de Tuinstraat.

Het Suiker hofjen op de Lindegraft, behoort aan de Lutherschen; en is

aangelegd voor oude vrouwen, en vrijsters boven de 50 jaaren: ieder
bewoonster geniet boven vrije wooning, jaarlijks 40 manden turf, 10 ℔
rijst, en drie dukatons aan geld—aan dezelfde Gemeente behoort ook

Het Grillen hofjen, in de Weterings dwarsstraat.

Het Brantzen hofjen, op de Nieuwe Keizersgraft bij de Weesperstraat.

Het Linden hofjen, op de Lindengraft, behoort aan de Doopsgezinden,

als mede
De Hoeksteen in de Lojerstraat, ook

Het Rijpen- of Roozen-hofjen op de Roozegraft.

Zie daar alleenlijk de hoofdtrekken van een schilderij van

Godsdienstigheid, barmhartigheid en menschenliefde, waarop de
Amsteldammers met reden roem mogen draagen.

WERELDLIJKE GEBOUWEN.

In de eerste plaats komt hier ongetwijfeld voor het vorstlijke Stadhuis,

dat met recht den naam draagt van ’t agtste wereldwonder: het staat
op den ruimen dam, meer achterwaards dan het oude Stadhuis in
1652, door de vlamme vernield, aldaar gestaan heeft: in 1648, (des
vier jaaren vóór gezegden brand,) begon men de grondslagen van het
tegenwoordige te leggen; ruim een jaar en negen maanden bragt men
door met het heien van de paalen, die ten getale van dertien duizend,
zes honderd negen en-vyftig werden ingeslagen, des niettegenstaande
werd de bouwing zo spoedig voordgezet, (vooral na het oude huis,
gelijk gezegd is, verbrand was,) dat de wethouderschap reeds op den
1 Augustus 1655 er haare zitting in nam; evenwel had het gebouw toen
nog geen dak, en er werdt nog eenigen jaaren lang aan gearbeid, eer
gezegd kon worden, dat het geheel voltooid was; alles onder opzicht
van de ontwerpers, de beroemde Jacobus van Campen, en Daniel
Stalpert.

Aan dit overheerelijk Stadhuis zijn de krachten der Bouwkunde

uitgeput, waarvan de beschouwing zelve alleen kan overtuigen; [16]het
heeft, behalven de onderste verdieping, waarin de Wisselbank,
gevangenplaatsen, en eenige kelders zijn, drie steenen verdiepingen
en verwelfsels: de breedte bedraagt een tal van ruim 282 voeten, en de
grootste diepte, naamlijk tusschen het voorste en achterste middenste
uitsteeksel, bedraagt omtrent 236 voeten, de kleinste of zijdelijke
diepte omtrent 200½ voeten: zonder den toren is het gebouw weinig
minder dan 117 voeten hoog: alles wat boven den grond is, is
zamengesteld uit witte Breemer en Bentheimer steen, aan alle kanten
met eene toereikende hoeveelheid van glasraamen voordien: in ’t
middenste uitsteekzel van den voorgevel zyn negen ronde boogen,
zeven van welken tot ingangen dienen, de twee overigen zijn met
ijzerene traliën gesloten; met vier steenen trappen gaat men tot deeze
boogen op: in ’t middenste uitsteeksel van den achtergevel, heeft men
eenen langwerpig vierkanten ingang naar welken men langs zes
steenen trappen, voorwaards en ook van beide zijden opgaat: boven
deezen opstal staan rondsom het gebouw negentig Romeinsche
Colommen, ieder, met de cieraadjen, ruim 36 voeten hoog: boven
deeze rij staat een gelijke talrijke rij Corinthische Colommen; alles met
cierlijke festonnen tusschen beiden: op ieder’ hoek van het dak staat
eenen koperen vergulden kroon, die door vier arenden gedragen
wordt; langs de daken zyn twintig dakvensters en agttien
schoorsteenen geplaatst: de middenste uitsteekzels van de voor- en
achter-gevel, zijn ieder met een kap gedekt, waarin overheerelijke
levensgroote marmeren beelden geplaatst zijn; op de lijst van den
voorkap staan drie koperen beelden, naamlijk dat der Vrede, tusschen
die der Voorzichtigheid en Rechtvaardigheid: op de achterkap staat
tusschen de beelden der Maatigheid en Wakkerheid een Atlasbeeld,
den hemelkloot torschende; de toren die rond en met agt halve
Corinthische Colommen omringd is, staat in ’t midden boven den kap
van den voorgevel op een vierkanten voetstuk, en is ruim 66 voeten
hoog: op denzelven staat voor windwijzer het oude wapen der stad: de
toren is met festonnen en andere sieraaden der bouwkunde getooid;
ook heeft hy een kunstig uurwerk en klokkespel, op ’t welk driemaal ter
week een uur gespeeld wordt; de ton van het werk weegt 4474
ponden.

Het zoude ons bestek te veel gevergd weezen, wilde men eene
beschrijving van het inwendige des gebouws van ons [17]vorderen, wij
kunnen er slechts iet weinigs van zeggen; de talrijke vertrekken,
welken er in zijn, zijn allen der bezichtiginge overwaardig; eenigen van
dezelven zijn vercierd met overheerelijke schilderstukken, en
beschilderingen van de voornaamste oude meesters; de
vroedschapskamer munt daarin boven alle anderen uit: op de
wapenkamer zijn ook veele bijzonderheden te zien, voornaamlijk van
oude wapenen, harnassen, enz.

Vooral zijn bewonderenswaardig de beelden, waarmede de openbaare

vierschaar, die in de onderste verdieping gevonden wordt, pronkt: men
ziet er in door drie boogen, die half met gehouwene steenen
toegemetseld, en half met getakte koperen tralien afgesloten zijn: de
ingang ter zijde is door twee zwaare metaalen deuren gesloten;
slangen, zwaarden, bliksems, als mede het oude en nieuwe wapen der
stad, vercieren dezelve: het binnenwerk, zijnde een rechterstoel, bank,
trappen, colommen, beeldwerk, enz. is genoegzaam alles van wit
marmer gehouwen: onder het beeldwerk vertoonen zig Salomon’s
gerecht, Seleucus, die zig ’t oog laat uitsteeken, en Brutus, die zijne
zoons doet onthalzen, alles overkunstig gehouwen.

Op de tweede verdieping munt uit de burgerzaal, over welken men tot

alle de op die verdieping zig bevindende kamers, gaat; deeze zaal, die
met twee zwaare koperen deuren gesloten wordt, is 120 voeten lang,
en omtrent 57 voeten breed: te recht is van deeze zaal gezegd: „Alles
blinkt hier van marmer, en andere kostbaare steen, zo kundig bewerkt,
dat de mans- en vrouwe-beelden niet slechts, maar ook het fruit- en
loofwerk, de bloemen, de korenschoven, de vogeltjens, het zeegedierte
en duizenderleie aartigheden meer, den aanschouwer op ’t levendigste
toelagchen:” midden op den marmersteenen grond, waren twee platte
halve aardklooten van gekleurden steen en geel koper kunstig
ingelegd, doch dezelve zijn door het beloopen reeds geheel
verdweenen; een halven hemelkloot, mede kunstig van geel koper in
denzelfden grond ingelegd, is nog heden te zien: het gewelfsel is fraai
beschilderd; met één woord, deeze zaal doet op het eerste gezicht
verstommen, en bij nadere beschouwing houdt zij de bewondering der
kenneren onafgebroken bezig.
Na het stadhuis verdient de Beurs genoemd te worden: zij is gebouwd
op vijf overwelfde boogen, die in den Amstel, aldaar Rokin geheten,
gelegd zijn: de middenste boog diende weleer ter doorvaart, doch in
1622 werd er een vaartuig met buskruid [18]onder gevonden, aldaar
gelegd zijnde, zoo men zegt, met oogmerk om het gebouw, als de
kooplieden vergaderd waren, in de lucht te laaten springen, en
daardoor de stad eene onherstelbaare schade toetebrengen; want men
moet zig miet verwonderen als men hoort dat de kooplieden op één’
beurstijd somtijds millioenen maalen millioenen schats aan papieren bij
zig hebben: na dien tijd is de gezegde doorvaart gesloten: de Beurs
bestaat uit een vierkant plein, omringd van breede gaanderijen, wier
verwelfsels op 46 pilaaren van blaauwen arduinsteen rusten; aan de
zuidzijde pronkt het gebouw met een cierlijk torentjen, voorzien van
een uurwerk: ’t gebouw is binnenswerks 250 voeten lang, en omtrent
140 voeten breed; is in den jaare 1608 aangelegd, in 1613 volbouwd,
en in 1668 merkelijk vergroot: boven de gezegde gaanderijen is een
zogenaamde Prentekamer; welke naam zij draagt om dat er veele
winkelkassen op gemaakt zijn, die meest door prentekoopers in huur
gehouden worden, en welken er ook dagelijks hunne voorraad
uitstallen; enkel de kassen worden ook door galanteriekramers in huur
gehouden: op dezelfde verdieping vindt men mede het stads
schermschool.

Op het Water staat een afzonderlijke beurs voor de korenkopers, die

weleer slechts van hout was, doch in den jaare 1767 is deeze
weggebroken, en een fraaje steenen beurs in de plaats gezet; zij is
gebouwd in den smaak der groote, of koopmans beurs voornoemd:
niet verre van deeze beurs, op de kolk, staat het Korenmeeters huis,
zijnde een sierlijk vierkant steenen gebouw—achter de Korenbeurs,
aan de andere zijde van het Water, vindt men het Stads Exijnshuis, dat
mede een groot gebouw is, en met hardsteenen gevels pronkt: ’t is in
1637 en 1638 merkelijk vernieuwd en vergroot—bij het zelve staat het
Bierdragers huis van de oude zijde; dat van de nieuwe zijde staat op
het Spui.
Amsteldam heeft drie waagen: de oudste, zijnde een gebouw van ’t
jaar 1560, staat op den Dam, tegen over het stadhuis; boven deeze is
de militaire hoofdwacht; de toegangen tot welke, zo wel als het bordes
daarvoor, is in den jaare 1778 fraai van blaauw arduinsteen vernieuwd
—De tweede waag staat op de Nieuwmarkt, en is de oude St.
Anthonies poort, die in 1617 tot een waag bekwaam gemaakt werd:
boven dezelve is de openbaare leerschool in de Anatomie, de
Snijkamer genaamd; ook worden er veele vreemde dieren, gewassen,
steenen, geraamten, enz. bewaard—de Heelmeesters hebben boven
deeze waag [19]ook hunne Gildekamer—De derde waag staat op de
Botermarkt, en is de gewezene Regulierspoort, in 1668 tot een waag
toebereid.

Voor weinige jaaren is er ook nog een Waterwaag aangelegd, naamlijk

op den Buitenkant bij de Kraansluis.

Het Prinsenhof, of eigenlijker gezegd het Admiraliteits hof 2, was

voorheen het St. Cecilien klooster, gesticht, naar het gevoelen van
sommigen, tusschen den jaare 1342 en 1352; ’t gebouw pronkt nog
met het torentjen van de kloosterkerk: in 1661 is het klooster bijna
geheel weg gebroken, en op deszelfs grond het tegenwoordige
prachtige hof gebouwd.

Het Admiraliteits of ’s Lands zeemagazijn, staat aan den IJ-kant, op

den hoek van Kattenburg; ’t is een ruim gesticht van den jaare 1655,
zijnde 220 voeten breed, en 200 voeten lang: in 1790 brandde het van
binnen geheel uit, doch ’t werd weldra weder in die orde gebragt,
waarin wij het heden beschouwen: voor dit magazijn ligt het scheeps
hok, binnen het welk de oorlogschepen die onttakeld zijn, opgelegd
worden: er leggen altoos fraaje pronkschepen in: nog werkelijk is men
bezig met de onderneeming om aldaar een dok te maaken, doch
veelen deskundigen twijfelen aan den goeden uitslag daarvan—bij ’t
magazijn is ook ’s Lands timmerwerf, zijnde dezelve omtrent 1500
voeten lang—Op een vrij grooten afstand van het magazijn, is ’s Lands
Lijnbaan, benevens die der Oostindische Compagnie; het Huis dier
Compagnie, op der hoek van de Hoogstraat, was tot den jaare 1605
het stads magazijn: het zelve is van tijd tot tijd vergroot—Het
Zeemagazijn derzelfde Compagnie is een geweldig groot gebouw, in
1660 aan den IJ-kant aangelegd; achter het zelve ligt ’s Compagnies
werf; haare Lijnbaan is op Oostenburg.

De gebouwen der Westindische Compagnie, zijn het Huis, op de

Garnaalsmarkt; haar pakhuis staat op Raapenburg, aan den IJ-kant:
weleer hield deeze Compagnie haare vergadering in het gebouw op
den Haarlemmerdijk, thans tot een Heeren Logement dienende: de
gewapende Schutterij betrekt boven hetzelve des avonds eene wacht.
[20]

Onder de groote stads gebouwen munt niet weinig uit de Lombard, of

Bank van leening, staande op den Fluweelen burgwal: in 1548 dat het
huis aldaar gebouwd tot een magazijn voor de huiszittenarmen; doch in
1614 werd het tot een lombard bekwaam gemaakt, en in 1669 nog
merkelijk vergroot: van de panden onder de ƒ 100 wordt slechts een’
penning van iederen gulden per week bepaald; van de panden boven
de ƒ 100 tot ƒ 475 wordt 7¼ ten honderd, en van panden van ƒ 500 en
daar boven, wordt 6 ten honderd ’s jaars betaald: door geheel de stad
heen, woonen inbrengers of inbrengsters, die voor een bepaald loon,
de panden, beneden de ƒ 100 aanneemen, en in de groote Lombard
brengen.

Vijf vleeschhallen waren er voorheen in Amsteldam, twee in de Nes;

doch de kleinste dier twee is voor eenige jaaren weggebroken, en de
groote tevens een goed gedeelte verlengd: de eene was weleer een
kerkjen, St. Pieter toegewijd, gelijk de St. Pieters poort er nog tegen
over is; de andere ’t Margareten klooster; de overige hallen staan op
de Westermarkt, (boven dezelve is de hoofdwacht der wakende
Schutterij,) op de Heeremarkt, en op de Botermarkt: de Jooden hebben
nog eene afzonderlijke hal voor zig.
Amsteldam heeft ook eene Laken- Zijde- en Saai hal, alwaar de
lakens, baajen en karsaajen, gelood en gestaald moeten worden: zij
staat in de Staalstraat, en was weleer de stads steenhouwerij.

In de Kalverstraat, over den Heiligen weg, staat een Schrijnwerkers, of

Kistemaakers pand; ’t was weleer een kerkjen tot het oud
Leprozenhuis behoorende: de stad verhuurt het aan eenige baazen
van het Kastemaakers gild, die er allerlei schrijnwerk in te koop stellen.

De Vischmarkten zijn drie in getal, één aan de oude, en één aan de

nieuwe zijde, (beiden voor zeevisch dienende,) en een rivier
vischmarkt, in de Nes, ter plaatse alwaar weleer de kleine vleeschhal
stond; zie boven.

De Colveniers doelen, alwaar men in vroegeren tijd met vuurroers naar

het wit plag te schieten, is thans een aanzienlijk logement, en voor
eenige jaaren van vooren fraai vertimmerd: ’t was weleer eene sterkte
aan den Amstel tegen de Utrechtenaars; blijkens ’t geen men in een’
steen voor dezelve leest: naamlijk de woorden, Zwicht Utrecht.

Nog zijn er twee andere Doelens, of Schutters hoven: de Hand- en

Voet-boogs, op de Garnalemarkt, thans geschikt tot het Westindisch
[21]huis, voornoemd, en een aanzienlijk logement—tusschen de
laatstgemelde beide doelens is één der vijf stads wapenhuizen; ten
einde van de Brouwersgraft is een ander, dat geweldig groot is, en
tevens tot een korenmagazijn dient; voords zijn aan drie afgelegene
hoeken van de stad drie anderen.

Vijf voornaame stadsherbergen zijn er in Amsteldam: De Nieuwe- en

Oude-zijds heerelogementen, de Oude en Nieuwe herbergen aan het
Y, en een in de plantaadje, die zeer vermaaklijk gelegen is, gelijk de
plantaadje zelve een aangenaam oord is: voorheen waren in dezelve
eene menigte kleine herbergjens voor den burger, doch deezen heeft
men naderhand allen verboden; misschien oordeelde men dat de
burger geene uitspanning noodig heeft—thans is ’t in de plantaadje
intusschen veel ordentelijker, want het krielt er van bordeelen.

De stad heeft ook een eigen Timmertuin, Steentuin, Steenhouwerij,

Scheepstimmerwerf, Geschut- en Klokgieterij, en Proefwerf.

De Nederduitsche Schouwburg stond weleer op de Keizersgraft, (zie

hiervoor, bladz. 9.) doch zij werd in den jaare 1772 ten eenenmaale
door de vlamme verteerd; een andere is kort na den brand op het
Lijdsche plein aangelegd—op de Erwte markt is een fraaje Fransche
Schouwburg, voor rekening van particulieren gebouwd; doch sedert
eenigen tijd, mag dezelve niet gebruikt worden—in de Amstelstraat,
bouwde men in den jaare 1790, een zeer goeden Hoogduitschen
Schouwburg, doch dezelve heeft almede moeten sluiten: eerst door
verloop van het fonds, thans ter oorzaake van de tijdsomstandigheden.

Weleer waren in Amsteldam drie Doolhoven; doch twee derzelven zijn

te niet geraakt; het Oude is nog aanwezig op de Prinsengraft bij de
Loojersgraft: ’t heeft een zeer schoon waterwerk; ook vertoont men er
eenige aloude geschiedenissen door beweegende beeldjens: er is een
houten reuzenbeeld van ongemeenen grootte, en
bewonderenswaardig fraai gewerkt.

Behalven de kerktorens, en die welken op de poorten, het stadhuis,

enz. gevonden worden, pronkt de stad nog met den Jan roodepoorts
toren, op het Cingel: hij draagt den genoemden naam om dat aldaar
weleer het Jan rooden poortjen stond: op denzelven is de
gevangenplaats der stads militie—de Regulierstoren, aan het einde
van de Kalverstraat en Cingel; hij is alzo genoemd om dat de
Regulierspoort aldaar weleer stond: in 1672 werd onder denzelven, om
reden van de omstandigheden van dien tijd, een munt aangelegd;
waarom men ook den toren [22]nog de Muntstoren, en de daaraan
gebouwde voornaame herberg, de Munt noemt: in deezen toren is een
schoon klokkespel——De Haringpakkers toren, van ouds de Heilige
kruistoren genaamd, staat aan den Y-kant, en wordt Haringpakkers
toren genoemd, om de Haringpakkerij, die er nabij is; ook houden de
keurmeesters van den haring in deezen toren hunne vergadering——
de Schreiers toren, staat mede aan den Y-kant, en draagt zijnen naam,
naar eene vrouw, die het schreiend t’scheep gaan van haaren man zo
zeer ter harte nam, dat zij er krankzinnig van werd, welk voorval ook
nog in een’ steen uitgehouwen, en in den torenmuur geplaatst,
vertoond wordt—de Montalbaans toren staat op de Oude schans; de
oorsprong van deezen naam is onzeker—de burgerij heeft hier ook
eene wachtplaats.

Drie Jagthavens die in Amsteldam gevonden worden, kunnen wij mede

onder dit artijkel betrekken: de eene is bij de Oude stads herberg, de
tweede aan den Amstel, voor de hooge sluis, of breede en aanzienlijke
steenen brug, en de derde bij ’t burgerwachthuis, Keerweer genaamd,
ten einde van Kattenburg; uit de twee eerstgemelden zeilt jaarlijks nog
een vloot van kleine vaartuigen, alhoewel zulks thans mede niet met
den ouden luister geschiedt.

Van de stads Kraanen zouden wij, vereischte ons bestek die

naauwkeurigheid, nog iet kunnen zeggen, thans gaan wij dat point met
stilzwijgen voorbij; van de schutsluizen hebben wij reeds met een enkel
woord gewaagd, en zouden meenen derhalven ons artijkel
Wereldlijke Gebouwen hier mede te kunnen sluiten, ware het dat wij
daaronder niet betrokken, de stads tuchthuizen en schoolen, waarvan
wij nog een enkel woord moeten spreeken.

Het eerste gebouw dat ons hierin voorkomt, is het Rasphuis,

gemeenlijk het Boevenrasphuis, ook het Tuchthuis geroemd: hetzelve
wordt gevonden op den Heiligen weg, en was weleer het Clarissen
Klooster: in 1595, werd het tot een tuchthuis voor de mans bekwaam
gemaakt: ’t is een gebouw allezins der bezichtiginge waardig, vooral
wegens de orde welke er in heerscht, die te aanmerkelijker wordt,
wanneer men nagaat dat de bewooners, eene talrijke hoop dier
wezens zijn, welken op eene der uiterste grenzen van de vatbaarheden
van den mensch staan, tot de ergste grouwelen in staat zijn, en echter
binnen de muuren [23]van dit huis, in behoorelijken tucht gehouden, ja
zelfs tot Godsdienstoefening genoodzaakt worden.

’T gewezene Ursulen klooster heeft jaaren lang gediend voor een

vrouwen Tucht- of Spin-huis; doch bij den aanbouw van een groot
stads Werkhuis op ’t Weesperveld, is hetzelve ten onbruike geraakt, in
zo verre het tuchtigen van vrouwlieden betreft; thans dient het tot
inquartiering van militie; de schuldige vrouwen worden nu in het
algemeene Werkhuis voornoemd geplaatst.

Het Willige rasphuis voor vrouwlieden, dat weleer aan den Y-kant
stond, en ter weeringe van bedelaarij diende, niet alleen, maar ook ter
gevangenplaatse van vrouwen, wier gedrag opsluiting verdiende, en
wier naastbestaanden de kosten van een bijzonder Beterhuis niet
konden draagen, almede door den aanleg van het voornoemde
algemeene Werkhuis, ten onbruike geraakt zijnde, werd de grond
daarvan bebouwd, met het allen lof verdienende Kweekschool voor
de Zeevaart; eene instelling die Amsteldam eere aandoet, en ons ’t
ons voorgeschreven bekrompen bestek doet betreuren; want gaarne
weidden wij ten breedsten over het aanleggen van die lofwaardige
schoole uit.

Het Verbeterhuis, staat op de schans niet verre van het

Weteringspoortjen; ’t was weleer een huis dat diende ter genezinge
van die met schurft of kwaadzeer besmet waren; het huis dient voor
particuliere opsluitingen, echter moet zulks geschieden op verlof van
de Regeering, die ook den Vader van hetzelve aanstelt.

Men heeft in Amsteldam voords een zeer aanzienlijke Doorluchtige

schoole, (Athenæum illustre,) ’t gebouw was weleer een kerkjen van ’t
Agnieten klooster, naderhand een pakhuis voor de Admiraliteit,
waartoe de onderste verdieping nog gebruikt wordt; boven de
leesplaats, is eene aanzienlijke stads boekerij, die eenmaal per week
voor ieder openstaat; alle de boeken zijn met koperen kettingjens aan
de kassen vastgemaakt.
Voorheen waren in deeze stad twee Latijnsche schoolen, thans is er
maar één, staande op de Cingel tusschen de Munt en den Heiligen
weg: ’t is een gebouw dat allezins aan het oogmerk beantwoordt: naast
hetzelve staat de wooning van den Rector.

De Huiszitten- of Stads-schoolen verdienen hier ook aangemerkt te

worden: zij zijn aangelegd voor de kinderen dier behoeftigen welke
[24]geene ledemaaten der Gereformeerden zijn, en derhalven niet door
de Diaconie onderhouden worden, deeze heeft haare eigene schoolen.

Boven de Vleeschhal in de Nes, is de vergaderplaats van de Opzieners

over het Genootschap der Geneesmeesteren—de aanzienlijke stads
Kruidtuin is in de Plantaadjen aangelegd.

Na het aanstippen van alle deeze kweekschoolen der geleerdheid,

waarbij wij veele andere particulieren zouden kunnen noemen, boven
al het beroemde Vergaderingshuis der Maatschappy Felix Meritis,
waarvan nader ons art. Bijzonderheden, zoude het niet onvoegelijk
zijn hier vervolgends iet te zeggen van de geleerde mannen die de
wereldberoemde stad Amsteldam uit haaren schoot heeft zien geboren
worden; dan, het getal derzelven zoude eenige bladzijden vorderen die
wij echter van ons bestek niet kunnen missen; ten allen tijde hebben de
kunsten en weetenschappen in deeze stad gebloeid, en het welk te
bewonderenswaardiger is, daar Amsteldam eigenlijk den troon des
koophandels genoemd mag worden; ja nog heden, nu zij de
gevaarlijkste verdeeldheid in haare ingewanden voelt wroeten; nu het
gezicht van duizende krijgsknechten haar dagelijks verschrikt; nu zij
telkens voor de gevaarlijkste uitbarstingen beeft, nu nog werkelijk tellen
de Amsteldammers onder zig zulk een groot aantal geleerden, als zij
mogelijk nimmer onder zig hebben kunnen tellen: vooral vindt men die
loflijke voorwerpen in den achtingwaardigen burgerstand.

KERKLIJKE REGEERING.
Ingevolge onze gewoonte in het reeds afgewerkt gedeelte van ons
uitgebreid plan, bepaalen wij ons hier ook weder alleenlijk tot de
Gereformeerde, of Heerschende kerk in Amsteldam: deeze gemeente
dan wordt bediend door 29 Predikanten, één van welken in de
Hoogduitsche taale moet prediken: de Gasthuiskerk had weleer haar
afzonderlijken Predikant; doch thans predikt deeze ook op zijn beurt in
de andere kerken, gelijk de overige Predikanten ook de Gasthuiskerk
op hunne beurt moeten waarneemen: de gewoone kerkenraad bestaat
voords uit gemelde Predikanten, een gelijk getal Ouderlingen, waarvan
jaarlijks de helft afgaan, gelijk ook van de Diaconen, die 42 in getal zijn,
en een afzonderlijk Collegie uitmaaken, doch van den grooten
kerkenraad ook leden zijn: den Diaconen zijn 12 Diaconessen
toegevoegd, [25]die voor al het vrouwlijke in dat groote ligchaam zorg
draagen; voorheen zond de Wethouderschap twee Gemagtigden in
den kerkenraad; doch sedert eenige jaaren vindt zulks geen plaats
meer: in gevalle van eene vacature onder de Predikanten, worden
Burgemeesteren om handopening tot het doen van een beroep
verzocht; na bekomen verlof, maakt de gewoone kerkenraad een
nominatie van drie, het zelfde doet het Collegie van Diaconen: deeze
dubbelde nominatie wordt in den grooten kerkenraad tot een drietal
gebragt, en daaruit wordt bij meerderheid van stemmen één verkozen,
op welke verkiezing vervolgends de goedkeuring van Burgemeesteren
verzocht wordt.

WERELDLIJKE REGEERING.

Deeze bestaat uit een Collegie van 36 Raaden, of Vroedschappen, 4

regeerende Burgemeesters, 9 Schepenen, en één’ Schout: eigenlijk
zijn er 12, zo afgegaane als regeerende Burgemeesteren, die den
Oud-raad uitmaaken, en hunne bijzondere functie hebben: de
Vroedschappen behouden hunne post levenslang, doch
Burgemeesteren en Schepenen worden jaarlijks, op Vrouwendag,
veranderd: bij ’t afsterven van één’ der Raaden, wordt in de
opengevallene plaats door het Collegie zelve eenen anderen verkozen: