Goldsmith, the gate, and the 'hibernicising' of Anglo-Irish plays (Pre-published version)

Abstract

In recent decades, Irish theatre-makers have frequently imposed Irish elements onto the “English” plays written by London-based, Irish Anglican playwrights. As discerning critics have long recognised, George Farquhar, Oliver Goldsmith, Richard Brinsley Sheridan, Oscar Wilde, and Bernard Shaw frequently signalled their Irish origins in their plays. Often cited are their satirical portraits of the English, their subversive use of Stage Irishmen, and their inclusion of Irish topical references. However, since independence (and even more markedly since the early 1980s), Irish theatres and theatre companies have not been satisfied with such coded expressions of Irishness. Bowing to popular, narrow conceptions of Irish identity – and perhaps demonstrating their discomfort with the Irish/British cultural hybridity of these writers1 – Irish theatre-makers have frequently had certain English, Scottish, or continental European characters in these works played as Irish, or have re-set the plays in Ireland.