Island of theatre

The Irish Theatre Institute (ITI) began developing its ‘Playography’ in 2001. In 2006, it launched its first element, ‘Irish Playography’, an online searchable catalogue of all new Irish plays written since 1904 in English and professionally produced in Ireland or abroad. It currently contains almost 2,500 play entries with information on the writer and details of the premiere, including cast lists and cast size, crew, creative and production personnel, and script availability and rights information. ITI produced a findings report in conjunction with completion of the work back to 1904, which provides details in a statistical format on topics such as the number of new plays produced each year, the most prolific writers, cast size, a chart of the evolution of production companies in Ireland, region, gender breakdown, play type, plays for children or young people, and translations.Early next year ITI will launch the first phase of Playography Ireland’s second resource, ‘Playography na Gaeilge’ – a catalogue of all new plays written in Irish and professionally or semi-professionally produced from 1975 to the present (approximately 250). Each entry will contain the same information as for the English language plays, thus creating a complementary resource charting playwriting in both Irish and English. The additional Irish language repertoire 1900–1974 will be completed over the next few years. A Findings Report on Irish language plays from 1975 to the present will be published to coincide with the launch, and will provide statistical information on the writers, production companies and venues involved in producing Irish language drama. The research for Playography na Gaeilge commenced in 2006 and is led by Anna Bale and Pádraig Ó Siadhail.

AN IMPORTANT RESOURCE
Mapping the new Irish writing repertoire for the island of Ireland is important to practitioners, theatre audiences and to ITI itself. As an information and research resource, it is valuable for practitioners seeking rights information and script availability (an increasing number of unpublished scripts are currently available for download and purchase). Playography Ireland is widely used by academic scholars and students of Irish drama, and by journalists and cultural commentators. Producing new drama in the Irish language is confined to certain companies, venues and regions such as Aisling Ghear in Belfast; Axis Theatre in Ballymun, Dublin; and in Galway, as well as the Taibhdhearc Theatre in Galway city, there are a few companies and theatre artists dedicated to producing work for adult audiences in Irish. Most Irish language drama on the island is funded by Foras na Gaeilge (the North-South Implementation Body for the Irish Language), and the Arts Council/An Choimhairle Ealaíon funds plays in Irish produced by some theatre in education companies. Many Irish language drama writers working in theatre today also write for the national Irish language television station (TG4).
Phase one of Playography na Gaeilge begins to fill in a gap in the history and historiography of theatre in Ireland. It makes detailed information on Irish language productions that was inaccessible for those with little or no Irish available for the first time. It highlights the quality, vitality and thematic range of original plays in Irish by talented dramatists such as Eoghan Ó Tuairisc, Seán Ó Tuama and Antoine Ó Flatharta, and demonstrates that Amharclann an Damer (the Damer Theatre), the late-lamented Dublin Irish-language project, was both imaginative and innovative in promoting translations of plays that had not been performed previously in English in Ireland.

BRIDGING THE GAPS
Playography na Gaeilge bridges the worlds of Irish language theatre and theatre in English in Ireland by providing compelling evidence of fraternisation, collaboration, and downright linguistic bed-hopping on a scale not previously recognised. It shows that, from the beginnings of modern Irish theatre, there have been many dramatists, actors, designers, technical staff and directors who have worked in both languages. For example Cyril Cusack, the renowned stage and screen actor, regularly directed plays for An Comhar Drámuíochta (Dublin Gaelic Players), the Dublin-based Irish language company and he wrote a play, Tar Éis an Aifrinn (‘After the Mass’), for An Comhar in 1942. Walter Macken was not just an Abbey actor and novelist: he was a prolific Taibhdhearc dramatist and producer. Tomás Mac Anna’s credits include a long list of productions not just in English at the Abbey Theatre, but also in Irish in the Damer. Playography na Gaeilge allows us to see and to make such connections.
ITI will complete its research in order to examine these links. Of particular interest is the role played by translation in introducing European theatre writers to Ireland. ITI is involved in ongoing editing and revision of the databases in an effort to maintain the highest standards of information provision. ITI has also created two other up-to-date searchable web resources containing detailed information on Irish (North and South) theatre, dance and opera companies, venues and festivals, and a database of freelance Irish theatre artists.