Current cultural and political changes have prompted the theatre to play a significant role in staging the transformations of the Irish identity. Over time, it has provided an impetus for expressions of the collective new self-image of the Irish. Re-inventing the self requires a manifestation of space and the production of space whether geographical, metaphorical or a physical stage representation. ‘Space’ has been utilised in Irish drama in terms of geographical location, cartography, social media, technology, immigration, and the theatre stage. Globalisation has also played a crucial role in terms of creating overlapping spaces and multiple belongings. This study will examine through Henri Lefebvre’s theory of space, how this type of spatial awareness manifests itself in Brian Friel’s Translations (1980); Martin McDonagh’s The Beauty Queen of Leenane (1996); Marina Carr’s By the Bog of Cats (1998); Michel Tremblay’s Solemn Mass for a Full Moon in Summer (2009) and Emma Donoghue’s adapted stage play Room (2017).
Keywords: Irish Drama; Spatial Theory; National Identity; Post-Colonialism; Theatre, Performance
