Sam Thompson, Stewart Parker, and the lineage of northern Irish drama
Northern Irish dramatist Stewart Parker (1941-1988) wrote plays typically valued for their wit, intellectual content, and formal experimentation. Nonetheless, he was profoundly influenced as a young man by a very different sort of playwright. Sam Thompson (1916-1965), who began his working life in t...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina
2010-11-01
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| Series: | Ilha do Desterro |
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| Online Access: | http://www.periodicos.ufsc.br/index.php/desterro/article/view/16425 |
| Summary: | Northern Irish dramatist Stewart Parker (1941-1988) wrote plays typically valued for their wit, intellectual content, and formal experimentation. Nonetheless, he was profoundly influenced as a young man by a very different sort of playwright. Sam Thompson (1916-1965), who began his working life in the Belfast shipyards, squarely confronted Northern Irish sectarianism in his plays. His sense of the political potential of drama left an enduring mark on Parker, who organized and edited Thompson's manuscripts several years after his untimely death. Although their dramatic writings bear little resemblance to each other, the two writers should be regarded as united in a common Northern Irish dramatic tradition by virtue of their shared socialist outlook, belief in the importance of individual stands against conformity, and sense of theatre's social mission. |
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| ISSN: | 0101-4846 2175-8026 |