The Theatre Of Frank Mcguinness

Contexts for Frank McGuinness's Drama is the most complete consideration of the playwright yet published, including discussion of his original stage work through Gates of Gold (2002) and highlighting the connections between McGuinness's creativity and the biographical, geographical, social, and literary factors that have shaped his world."

The first edited collection of essays about internationally renowned Irish playwright Frank McGuinness focuses on both performance and text. Interpreters come to diverse conclusions, creating a vigorous dialogue that enriches understanding and reflects a strong consensus about the value of McGuinness's complex work. REVIEWS ". . . a fascinating and diverse collection of reactions to the work of Frank McGuinness". Reviewed by : Patrick Mason ". . . Frank McGuinness's drama in its richness and variety calls out for what this collection of essays supplies: A multi-authored volume by both practitioners and academics.....thoughtful, stimulating collection". Reviewed by : Anthony Roche "The diversity of the playwright's work is well matched in the collection by the scale of the different approaches the authors of the essays and talks take...I recommend the book especially to those who McGuinness difficult, but all readers are likely to put it down enriched and with a reformed view of drama and theatre in general" Reviewed by : Maria Kurdi, Drama League Magazine of Ireland, Spring 2004

Set in Ireland in the sixteenth century, Mutabilitie explores the area where myth meets and transforms reality and where the harshness of life is transmuted into hope by the chance meeting of a poet and a playwright.

The Day family are Irish country-music royalty and Irene is their queen. Her relatives are completely dependent on her success. But as Irene's star fades, the Days are facing financial destruction. When the heir to her musical throne, Jackie Day, returns from the States with a new girlfriend, resentments simmer. Does Irene have the strength to hold the clan together? And will Jackie save them with the gift of a song?

This second collection of Frank McGuinness contains his beautifully lyrical plays from 1989 to 1999. The Bird Sanctuary is published here for the first time. The collection also includes Mary and Lizzie, Someone Who'll Watch Over Me and Dolly West's Kitchen, and is introduced by the author. Mary and Lizzie 'An extraordinary, outlandish script . . . Intriguing and sharply irreverent.' Time Out Someone Who'll Watch Over Me 'Frank McGuinness's brilliant play, Someone Who'll Watch Over Me, not only penetrates the minds of three disparate man who fetch up as hostages in Lebanon, but also evokes a terrifyingly unnatural situation with remarkable conviction.' Sunday Express Dolly West's Kitchen 'No play has ever looked into Ireland's past and found there its future with the mix of wit and wisdom, death and despair, life and love, that characterises every line and every corner and every moment of Dolly West's Kitchen.' Spectator

And she grew to be a girl, my daughter. Sing a song, Mary. Sing for grandma and Granda. Sing. The ties that bind can never be broken. For Sal, they hang like a noose around her neck, just loose enough to keep a small but potent flame burning inside. A passionate story of love and hate, The Match Box by Frank McGuinness premiered at the Liverpool Playhouse in June 2012.

Conrad and Gabriel are lovers but when Alma arrives to tend the sick Gabriel, their lives are unpicked and remade. Frank McGuinness's powerful, subtle and funny play explores the territory where boundaries of love, devotion and hate coalesce. Gates of Gold premiered at the Gate Theatre, Dublin, in 2002.

This first collection by Frank McGuinness contains plays from the 1980s, including his major work of that decade, Observe the Sons of Ulster Marching Towards the Somme, a powerful and profoundly moving study of a group of Ulster Protestant volunteers in the Great War. The book also contains Carthaginians, set in a Derry graveyard in the aftermath of the Bloody Sunday killings, Innocence, McGuinness's vigorous drama based on the life of Caravaggio, The Factory Girls and Baglady.