Tom Murphy shot to fame with the London production of
A Whistle in the Dark in 1961, establishing him as the outstanding Irish playwright of his generation. The international success of Druid Murphy, the 2012-13 staging of three of his major plays by the Druid Theatre Company, served to underline his continuing appeal and importance. This is the first full scale academic study devoted to his theatre, providing an overview of all his work, with a detailed reading of his most significant texts.
His powerful and searchingly honest engagement with Irish history and society is reflected in the violent
Whistle in the Dark, the epic
Famine (1968), the often hilarious
Conversations on a Homecoming (1985) and the darkly Chekhovian
The House (2000). Folklore and myth figure more prominently in the spiritual drama of
The Sanctuary Lamp (1975), the Faustian
Gigli Concert (1983) and the women”s stories of
Bailegangaire (1985). The range and reach of Murphy”s theatre is demonstrated in this informed reading, supported by key interviews with the playwright himself and his most important theatrical and critical interpreters.