Theatre and Films of Conor McPherson

Eamonn Jordan is Associate Professor in Drama Studies at the School of English, Drama and Film, University College Dublin. His many publications on Irish theatre include: The Feast of Famine: The Plays of Frank McGuinness (1997); Theatre Stuff: Critical Essays on Contemporary Irish Theatre (2000); The Theatre of Martin McDonagh: A World of Savage Stories (co-edited with Lilian Chambers, 2006); Dissident Dramaturgies: Contemporary Irish Theatre (2010); The Theatre of Conor McPherson:'Right beside the Beyond' (co-edited with Lilian Chambers, 2012); From Leenane to LA: The Theatre and Cinema of Martin McDonagh (2014), and The Palgrave Handbook of Contemporary Irish Theatre (co-edited with Eric Weitz, 2017).

Highly recommendable … [I] believe Jordan’s work on McPherson’s theatre and films is rigorous, thoughtful and honest, approaching the “conspicuous communities” inhabiting the fictive world from different perspectives, in a delightful edition and with a style which makes the act of reading a pleasurable experience, something which is not the rule when reading a piece of critical work.

• Table of Contents AcknowledgementsReferences and AbbreviationsIntroductionCareer Breakthrough and TrajectoryWorking Assumptions and MethodologyPerformance MakingContexualizationsOverview and VectorisationChapter One: Monopolies of Self/ Terms of EndearmentIntroduction: Stories and their TellingMonologues, Performers, AudiencesTiger CountryRum and Vodka: No Man in the MirrorThe Good Thief: Degrees of DepravityThis Lime Tree Bower: Three Strikes Not OutPort Authority: Last Resort LineageCome on Over: The Third Narrator?Limelights, Spotlights, LifelinesConclusionChapter Two: Criminality and Caper TragicomedyIntroduction: City of Capital/Capital CityI Went Down: On the Road to Nowhere?Saltwater: Finders KeepersThe Actors: Infamy and FortuneDeserving and Undeserving Rich/PoorConclusionChapter Three: Convergent Realities: Ghosts and the UncannyIntroduction: For the Supernaturally InclinedSt Nicholas: The gift/thief of a StoryShining City: Hiding in Plain SightThe Eclipse: Eleanor/LenaPaula: Immaculate Deception/Fatal DistractionConclusionChapter Four: Apocalyptic Dispossessions Introduction: Safe Houses and Parallel UniversesThe Birds: Unfitting SurvivalThe Night Alive: The Banks are Bust The Veil: Gothic DominoesThe Girl from the North Country: The Great EscapeConclusionChapter Five: Season’s GreetingsIntroduction: Christmases PastPersistent Overlaps and EvolutionsDublin Carol: Till Life Do Us PartThe Seafarer: Hook, Line and SinkerSeasonal RapturesConclusionChapter 6: Conspicuous CommunitiesIntroduction: A Pastoral SensitivityThe Weir: Sleight of Register/ Sleight of ConsciousnessThe Story RealmRelational MismatchesYour RoundConclusionCritical PerspectivesConor McPherson in ConversationConor McPherson’s Haunted Women: The Weir, The Veil, and PaulaLisa FitzpatrickNarrativity and the Narrator Figure in Conor McPherson’s Port Authority, The Veil, and Girl from the North CountryMaha Alatawi“You know?” Ben BrantleyConclusionQuantum StatesConvergencesChronologyNotesFurther ReadingsNotes on ContributorsIndex