Is Irishness part of the joke?: Martin McDonagh’s drama on the Galician stage

Abstract

My PhD research analyses Irish and Irish-themed plays that have been translated and performed in Galician, a minorised language spoken in Northern Spain, from J.M. Synge and W.B. Yeats to Martin McDonagh. What motivated the translation of their works? How is the adaptation process carried out? What impact have they had and continue to have? Ever since the publication of the first translations in the 1920s, the interest in Irish drama has persisted and is at present as strong as ever, with recent productions of Martin McDonagh’s works enjoying successful runs on the Galician stage. Since the mid-1990s, McDonagh has forged himself an international reputation for his daring plays and scripts, received with a great degree of enthusiasm and nearly equal measures of disapproval on the part of audiences and critics. The reactions range from flattering epithets such as “Tarantino-comes-to-Connemara” to accusations of paddywhackery and of the resurrection of the ...