Translated drama under the spotlight: the case of Irish and other languages

Certain scholarly commentary suggests that a drama script only represents one piece of its entire story and, as a result, it is frequently not afforded a status equal to that assigned to other genres in literature. In the following article, the subject of drama, especially as it pertains to translation, will be discussed. International examples will be drawn upon to assert that drama deserves its own space within the field of literary endeavour and that it is not as easy as one might think to distinguish between literary and dramatic works. The difficulties in defining what is meant by drama as well as the complications involved in staging a drama will be illustrated. Even though Irish-language drama, particularly in Irish cities, has generally been considered as underground theatre down the years, examples from international drama will be used as a mechanism to compare and contrast them with Irish-language equivalents, thus demonstrating that Irish-language drama and international drama have many traits in common in this context