Working-Class Women in Irish Literature and Theatre: Emerging from the Silence

Working-Class Women in Irish Literature and Theatre critically engages with works of theatre both by and about working-class women, historically and presently. Addressing professional and community theatre productions, from both textual and performative perspectives, this volume focuses on works of theatre by practitioners, directors, playwrights, and performance artists across rural and urban contexts. Irish theatre has a long history of signifying social class. Yet the representations of working-class women in Irish theatrical history also encompass several problematic issues, starting with the fact that these depictions were created by male writers like J. M Synge and Seán O’Casey to name but a few. Nonetheless, the theatre’s emphasis on embodied performance and its ability to reach its public in an unmediated way has attracted working-class engagement perhaps more than other art forms in Ireland. Contemporary playwrights in the Republic and the north of Ireland have tirelessly striven to illuminate working-class women’s lived experiences and have reframed the characterisation of working-class women by drawing out the intersection of social class with sexualities, ethnic minorities, and racial identities. This edited collection also includes the voices of directors, playwrights, and performers who identify with a working-class social background, offering first-hand accounts of their lived experience in the theatre industry.

Clara Mallon recently completed her PhD thesis at the O’Donoghue Centre for Drama, Theatre and Performance, University of Galway. Her project was funded by the Irish Research Council’s Postgraduate Scholarship and centres on the representation of the working class in Irish theatre and performance in Ireland. She has published with the Irish University Review, and has a number of chapters in edited collections. She occasionally lectures at University College Dublin.

Salomé Paul is a Teaching Fellow in Drama Studies at University College Dublin. She completed a cotutelle PhD from Sorbonne University and UCD in 2020. She was awarded the French Government Medal and the National University of Ireland Prize for Distinction in Collaborative Degrees for her doctoral research in 2021. She was the recipient of the Two-Year Postdoctoral Scheme of the Irish Research Council from 2020 to 2022, which led to the publication of her monograph Marina Carr and Greek Tragedy: Feminist Myths of Monstrosity in 2024.