Looking for Fiona: gender and nationality in the work of Fiona Shaw

Book synopsis: In A Critical History of Modern Irish Drama 1891-1980 (1984), the late Professor D.E.S. Maxwell states that the drama of J.M. Synge has ‘an effect of language [to] disturb the apparent solidity of his stage’s material accessories, to fantasticate and mythologise character into action.’ In a sense, this is what all great drama does; through the use of the fantastic and the mythic, it disturbs the ‘solidity’ of the world as we know it. The works presented and discussed in this volume, show how the material of the everyday is transformed by the dreams of theatre makers, as we journey forth into the 21st Century. In writings by Marina Carr, Seamus Heaney, Olwen Fouere, Terry Eagleton, Paul Murphy, Aoife Monks, Melissa Sihra, Conall Morrison, Mark Phelan, Eamonn Jordan, Brian Singleton, Lynne Parker, Rhona Trench, Stephen Regan, David Johnston and Donal O’Kelly we see examples of creative writing which engage critically with a world that is constantly changing, and examples of critical writing which engage creatively with theatre that is constantly evolving