Contemporary Irish Documentary Theatre

Contemporary Irish Documentary Theatre is the first anthology of Irish documentary drama

It features five challenging plays by Irish writers and one by an international author

They all interrogate and comment on crucial events of Irish history and the diaspora

And together they represent the most innovative development in contemporary Irish theatre and illuminate the social and political realities of contemporary Ireland

Also included are introductory essays by established academics

The six plays included and discussed are:

No Escape ~ Mary Raftery
Guaranteed ~ Colin Murphy
Of This Brave Time ~ Jimmy Murphy
History ~ Grace Dyas
My English Tongue, My Irish Heart ~ Martin Lynch
The Two Deaths of Roger Casement ~ Domingos Nunez

The first two plays - No Escape & Guaranteed - deal with scandals of clerical and institutional abuse, and use as source material the Ryan Report of 2009, and the documents from the 2008 Irish Bank Guarantee

The next two - Of This Brave Time & History - concern interpretations of the most iconic moment of Irish history: The Easter Rising

Of This Brave Time is based on published statements of participants in the event and History on the lived experiences of those in the contemporary Republic whose founding ideals have not been realized

The last two plays - My English Tongue, My Irish Heart & The Two Deaths of Roger Casement - widen the view to the history of the Irish in the diaspora

My English Tongue, My Irish Heart retells the history of emigration to England based on published research material

The Two Deaths of Roger Casement traces Roger Casement's experiences in the Amazon and his subsequent participation in the Easter Rising using extracts from his diaries and other writings