"Clearing the Ground"

“Clearing the Ground”–The Field Day Theatre Company and the Construction of Irish Identities studies the Field Day Theatre Company, with special focus on the plays that they put on stage between 1980 and 1995; it attempts to dissect their policy and observe the way in which this policy influences the discourse of the theatrical productions. Was Field Day simply the “cultural wing” of Sinn Fein and the IRA, or did they try to give voice to a new critical discourse, challenging the traditional frames of representation? This book focuses on a thorough analysis of the way in which Field Day applied the concepts of postcolonial discourse to their own needs of creating a foundation for the ideological manifesto of the company. This study is a critique of the successes and failures of a theatre company that, in a period of political and cultural crisis, engaged in innovative ways of discussing the sensitive issues of identity, memory and history in Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland.

Carmen Szabó completed her PhD in Theatre Studies at University College Dublin in 2005 with a thesis focusing on a critique of issues of postcolonialism and identity in contemporary Irish theatre. Her present research interests concentrate on experimental and community theatre in Northern Ireland and their role in reconciliation and establishing a lasting environment of multiculturality. She has published articles on Irish theatre and was involved in a project funded by the European Council for Culture, translating Irish plays into Romanian. She is currently working on a book entitled “Artscapes of Meaning” – Performing Identities in Northern Ireland.