Full length play - Stammer, and Critical essay - “Resurrecting the past, to inform the present: creating an ‘Irish’ play”

O’Callaghan, Neasa (2015). Full length play - Stammer, and Critical essay - “Resurrecting the past, to inform the present: creating an ‘Irish’ play”. University of Birmingham. M.Res.

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Abstract

The following thesis submission contains a new full-length play, \(Stammer\), which explores financial meltdown, its effects on the family environment and the malleability of language, as well as a critical essay entitled “Resurrecting the Past, to inform the Present: Creating an ‘Irish’ Play”. This critical essay places this new play within the recognisable framework of the ‘Irish’ play, considering aspects of place, in particular previous representations of the West of Ireland, as well as assessing how, thematically, the play links with previous Irish works from the early twentieth century to the present day. While it references similarities, it also highlights how the play deviates from the canon of modern and contemporary Irish drama, and the means by which it attempts to respond to the current social and political climate in Ireland. This essay also elaborates on depictions of stammering in film and drama, and how \(Stammer\) seeks to represent disfluency in a new light. Finally, this essay will document the important moments of progression when writing \(Stammer\), and the difficulties that were encountered, from the first draft to the play’s final form.

Type of Work:

Thesis (Masters by Research > M.Res.)

Award Type:

Masters by Research > M.Res.

Supervisor(s):