IRISH THEATRE

 Irish Dramatic Revival

    Celtic  Revival   -  The Irish Theatre   - The Abbey Theatre , Celtic Twilight

           

 

The Celtic Revival, also known as  the Irish Literary Renaissance, identifies the remarkably creative Period in Irish Literature from about 1800 to the death of William Butler Yeats in 1939. The aim of Yeats and other early leaders of the movement was to create a distinctive national literature by going back to Irish history, legend and folklore, as well as to native literary models. The major writers however ,note not in the native Irish (one of the Celtic languages)but in English, and under the influence of    non-Irish  literary forms . A number of them also turned increasingly for their subject matter to modern Irish life rather than to the ancient past.

            

 Notable Poets in addition to Yeats were A E ( George Russell) and Oliver St. John Gogarty . The dramatists included Yeats himself, as well as Lady Gregory ( who was also an important patron  and publicist  for  the movement) , John Millington Synge , and later Sean O’Casey . Among the novelists were  George Moore and James Stephens , as well as James Joyce , who , although he abandoned Ireland for  Europe and ridiculed the excesses of the nationalist  writers , adverted to Irish  subject matter and characters in all his writings . As these names indicate , the Celtic Revival produced some of the greatest  poetry, drama and prose fiction written in English during the first four  decades of the twentieth century.

             

 “ The Celtic Revival” is a broad term which is applied to a  school of writers who drew attention to a wealth of literary material in Ireland which lay unused . Originally it awakened interest in bardic tales which transported the reader to a land of beauty and bliss . W. B. Yeats retold Celtic mythology ,as in ‘The Seven Woods(1903). But later the school abandoned dead mythology and turned to utilizing the abundant  poetic  and dramatic material cherished by the people  of the Irish countryside. It is in this field that the work of this school is of enduring value. In poetry the lyrics and ballads of William Allingham , including The Fairies (1883) and Douglas Hyde’s  songs of Connacht (1903) are worth mentioning.

        

 It was, however, in the field of drama that this movement had the greatest success. Among those active either in the management or in writing plays were W.B. Yeats, Lady Gregory , Lennox Robinson, Edward Martyn and George William Russell. But the outstanding dramatist whom the movement produced was  John Synge. The Irish literary Theatre was established in 1899.Later it was called The Abbey Theatre , Dublin. Yeats was the co-founder of the Abbey Theatre with Lady Gregory. But because of his versatile genius he is honored as the leader of the Celtic Revival. He wrote a number of plays for the  Abbey Theatre. It was the six plays of Synge which were the most interesting production of the Celtic  Revival. More than a decade later Sean O’Casey made substantial contribution of the vigour and realism of the Irish drama.

                         

                     

  Irish dramatists have played an important part in the history of English drama. From the middle of the eighteenth century down to the beginning of the twentieth , the chief additions of English drama were the work of Irishmen. Goldsmith, Sheridan, Oscar Wilde and Bernard Shaw were Irish dramatists, and their contribution to English drama is Substantial.

During the twentieth century ,there was a stir among Irish dramatists to revive old Irish drama and popularize Irish themes and legends in dramatic works. With the object of putting Ireland distinctly on the map of British drama the Irish National Literary Society was formed in Ireland by W.B. Yeats and a few other leading Irish dramatists in 1892. The society developed by 1903  into Irish National Theatre Society and in the same year The Abbey Theatre was established  with the aid of  Miss A. E. F. Horniman, a rich English lady. The Irish literary Theatre has the avowed object of  dramatizing Irish life; not the life of sordid realism but the Irish life of beauty and enchantment , myths and legend. No doubt there was among these dramatists a craze for the  revival of Irish legends and myths , but they could not completely ignore the life of peasants and Irish country folk from their plays . There was therefore in Irish Theatre Movement in Dublin a combination of two motives. The first object of the dramatists was to revive old Irish life ,and their second object was to give a new interpretation to the life and the achievements of Irish peasants The sponsors of this Movement thus aimed at the revival of old  Irish legends and mythologies as well as create a new school of native comedy centering round Irish folklore and representing Irish peasant life character. “ The imaginative idealism which has always characterized the Celtic races, that love of passionate dreamy poetry ,that only half-ashamed beliefs in the fairy world , all give a particular tone the plays produced at the Abbey Theatre.”

The prominent dramatists of Abbey Theatre Dublin were W. B. Yeats ,Lady Gregory , J. M. Synge, Lennox Robinson , T.C. Murray, Padric Column, Edward Martyn , O’Casey and Lord Dunsany.    

     

 YEAT S  AND THE IRISH MOVEMENT

The Irish Movement contributed a lot to English drama, both prose and verse. The leaders of Irish Movement were  W. B. Yeats (1865-1939) and Synge . Their followers were many  and included some very talented writers. Synge wrote plays in poetic language all of his own , but it was prose not verse.

           

 The work of  W. B. Yeats as a dramatist belongs to the Irish literary Movement and the  Abbey Theatre . Yeats was primarily a poet and it is quite natural that his dramatic work should have been imbued by the spirit of lyricism a poetic fervour. The dramas of Yeats can be divided into two groups. In the first groups we can place plays dealing with Irish life in a straightforward mannerwithout any symbolism and mysticism. The plays of this group are The Countess Cathleen(1892), The Land of Heart’s Desire (1894), The Shadowy Waters (1900), Cathleen in Houlihan (1902) , The King’s Threshold (1904), The Hour Glass (1904) , Deirde (1970), At the Hawks Well (1917) and The  Clat and the Moon (1929). In the second group we place Yeats’s mystical and philosophical plays like Cavalry (1920), The Resurrection (1931), Purgatory(1939) and The Death of Cuchlain (1939). The plays of this are symbolic in character. One needs some understanding and knowledge of Yeats’s  symbolic system to group them fully in all their niceties. These symbolic plays have a hunting suggestiveness about them and are highly stylized in manner reminiscent of the Japanese ’NO Plays ‘. The language is colloquial and ritualistic ;representation of thought is enigmatic.

W. B. Yeats has no doubt left a rich legacy in dramatic field. Yet he did not have the gifts of a dramatist. He was a greater poet than a dramatist and poetry dominates his plays. There is little or no attempt at characterization in his plays , and his characters are his own mouthpieces giving expression to his poetic ideas in a dignified manner .The plays no doubt present a love for old Irish legends and folk songs , tales of supernaturalism, angels and demons, but they lack action and sound characterization. That is their weakness. They do not create the ‘illusion of possible people behaving credibly and using an appropriate speech medium.’

The popularity of Yeats’s  plays “depend more upon poetic charm  and strangeness than upon dramatic power. Essentially a romantic  lyric poet ,he, did not move with ease in the dramatic form.” In the opinion of  A. Nicoll, “ Yeats may be regarded rather as a lyric poet than a playwright. His delicately fragile melodies and his esoteric mysticism alike tend to weaken the theatrical element in his dramas.”     

Yeats was a poet of considerable powers. His poetic plays posed a serious challenge to the products of the realistic prose school. They were poetic not only in form but spirit also. They were full of rich symbolism , mystic esotericism and delicate refinements which characterize much of his poetry. Yeats “deprecated the conversion of the theatre  into the lecture-platform and the pulpit by realistic playwrights”. His was , say Moody and Lovett , “the first dramatic verse since Jacobean days that was really related to human impulse and expression and was  not a mere decoration; he took the new  Anglo-Irish poetry , with its tendency towards rhetoric and  its gleams of racial imaginativeness , and he gave it an aesthetic form that was to be the greatest influence on the next generation of the  Irish writers.”  The Countess Cathleen( which came towards the end of the nineteenth century), The Land of Heart’s Desire, The kings Threshold , On Baile’s Strand , and  Deirde are his chief plays. For Sheer Poetry and emotional effectiveness The Countess  Cathleeen occupies the most prominent place. It is the story of a Christ-like countess who offers her own soul for hell in return for the release of many others.

Yeat’s wrote about  twenty plays but ,like many great lyric poets ,lacked the qualifications of dramatist. The value of his plays lay chiefly in their poetry as well as in the way they set the imagination to roam in Ireland’s historic past. The subjects of his plays are like those of his lyrics . His characters  too are drawn from Irish legends , as in many of his poems . His best known plays are The Land of Heart’s Desire (1894), The Shadowy Water’s(1900), Cathleen ni  Houlihan(1902) and  on Bailes’s Strand (1904). Cathleen ni Houlihan is a forceful nationalistic one act play , largely in prose. Cathleen  ,a poor and mysterious old woman, symbolizes Ireland. She promises glory to those who can recover her land from foreign occupation, and lures innumerable young men to leave their home and sweetheart in her cause.

John Millington Synge (1871-1909)

J. M.  Synge was the greatest dramatist in the rebirth of Irish Theatre. He played an important part in giving to Irish life both in its tragic and comic aspects, a tangible form and shape in his plays. He studied life objectively in its beauty , its comedy and its tragedy, and gave expression to his feelings in a language that is poetic , rich and natural. His plays are written in prose , but they have rhythms and cadences of poetry springing from the natural idiom of the peasant. At the advice of Yeats Synge gave up his Bohemian life and settled among the fish-folk of the Isle of Aran of Western Ireland. There he lived as one of the peasants; his soul was refreshed by beauty of the surroundings . He saw life anew and objectively in its beauty, its comedy and its tragedy. All this inspired him to write plays . And he wrote six plays , all in the speech and speech-rhythms of the Islanders- The Shadow of the Glen (1903), Riders to the Sea(1904), The Well of the Saints(1905), The Tinker’s wedding(1907),The Playboy of the Western World(1907) and Deirdre of Sorrows (1910). All these plays deal at first hand with life of men and women living on the Island. The life portrayed  in these plays is a complex life with its laughter and tears , Christian ideals and heathen habits , nobility and savagery. Synge has no  moral lesson to teach , no reform to accomplish. He depicted a detached picture of life for its own sake. And  his language is the language of the people of the Island spoke. All his plays are in prose, but the diction and rhythm are those of poetry.

Riders to the Sea is a one-act  tragedy dealing with the way in which the sea swallows all the sons of an old woman. The action is concentrated in a short scene in a cottage . The play opens with identifying the clothes of a son who has just been drowned. Yet the last makes a journey to the sea and is washed out into the great sea. His body is brought back .And the old mother tells herself,   

“They’re all gone now , and there isn’t  anything  more the sea can do to me……………I’ll have no call now to be up crying and praying when the wind breaks from the sea……………..”        

Sean O’Casey(1884-1964)

Sean O’Casey was worthy successor of Synge. The works of O’Casey is the next milestone in the literary history of the Abbey Theatre. An Irishman of genius , he is a worthy successor  to  Synge. His background however, is not Aran Islands but the slums of Dublin, inhabited by loafers and disturbed by drinks and violence The Shadow of a Gunman was produced at the Abbey Theatre in 1923. It is a realistic study of Anglo-Irish war of 1920, depicting the bloodiness and violence of the struggle and the tenacity of the participants. His next play ,Juno and the Paycock, produced at the Abbey  Theatre in 1924, is his masterpiece. It has its setting in 1922. The Plough and the Stars (1926) is a chronicle play about the Easter Rising of 1916. The Silver Tasse (1929) deals with the 1914-18 war. It is a harrowing exposure of the damage trench warfare in France did to the  men’s hope and happiness. Among his other plays mention may be made of within the Gates(1934), Red Roses for Me (1946), Cock-a-Doodle Dandy(1949).

The Plays of O’Casey are about Irish life and the tragedy and comedy of this life is well brought out in dialogues , which are vivid ,racy and rhythmical. In O’Casey comedy and tragedy sit cheek by jowl. Comedy is seldom long absent, yet one can never forget  the grim, underlying sadness. He  draws what he sees with a ruthless objectivity and an impressionist vividness of detail.

“The characters of O’Casey are weak , they are crude and pitiable, they are comic creatures speaking a rich lingo of Dublin Slums. They strut about ,boasting ,Singing, quarrelling, drinking in unflagging vitality.’’

Lady Gregory (1859-1932)

She is known as a comedy writer dealing with Irish life and folklore in a language that is characteristically Irish. Though her dialogue may not be as remarkable as Synge’s ,yet there is a charm  in her presentation of Irish characters .  Her main works are Irish Folk History plays (1912), New Comedies (1913), Seven Short Plays  (1909), The White Cockade (1914) , The Caravans (1917), The wonder Plays (1922), Three Last Plays (1928).