8 • cultural: theatre
Natalia Valadzko
A theatre more interested in words than action
I
s it possible to write a play only about language? The space of interpretation, between the stage and the audience, makes theatre a fascinating medium for experimentation. On stage, w ords make it possible to accomplish the most using fewer means. Colourful descriptions can paint objects, decorations, and characters on stage. Reviewing the renowned Irish plays of the 20th century it’s easy to notice that many of them employ poetic and authentic language, and incorporate it into the content of the play. Some theatregoers may protest the lack of action on the Irish stage, so apparent (or rather absent) in the works of, say, the Nobel prize winner, Samuel Beckett. But the mere opposition of action and language may as well hamper a unique opportunity for new emotional experiences and reflection. Narratives are so pervasive that life is commonly constructed as a story, drawing in audiences with everyday expressions like “writing a new chapter”, or “the protagonist of your own life”. Plots or, broadly speaking, histories, have been seen as stories with a beginning, middle, and end – all of which are linked by a cause-and-effect relation. The art of storytelling brings us back to the oral culture of the past, to Greek myths, Celtic legends and folktales, to a group narrative consumption, and not a solitary one. The role of Celtic mythology and folklore cannot be overestimated in the development of the Irish Literary Revival. Cultural nationalism has been promoted through the use and re-interpretation of the authentic Celtic legends. They were not considered in any way inferior to the classic Greek ones - on the contrary, it was an attempt to de-Anglicize Ireland, retell and reinvent the national identity. Yeats and Lady Gregory wanted to show that “Ireland was not the home of buffoonery and of easy sentiment […] but the home of an ancient idealism”.
