Shakespeare in eighteenth-century Dublin: rehearsing an Anglo-Irish playwright, 1707-1801

Thesis

This is the first sustained exploration of Shakespeare performances in eighteenth-century Dublin. Moving chronologically from the first Dublin “patriot” movements in 1698 and the 1700s to the Act of Union in 1801, I argue that the Shakespeare’s rise to national prominence and the growing consolidation of an Anglo-Irish cultural identity were mutually constitutive. Across the century, Ireland’s contested status as a separate kingdom in thrall to the Union disturbed budding concepts of British identity. At the same time, Shakespeare transformed into a British national symbol. What happened to a Shakespeare repertory in formation when the plays were performed and reproduced in an environment that challenged the borders of social and national performance, on and off the stage?

Thinking holistically about performance, each chapter focusses on a different element of the eighteenth-century playhouse: costumes, repertoire and adaptation, actor’s careers, character and genre, and sets and settings. I have split it into three sections. In the first half of the century, my first section argues, the Dublin Protestant elite considered Shakespeare’s plays shared cultural capital. They felt free to costume, package, and market Shakespeare productions to leverage their power against Westminster. As the city expanded, managers and adaptors like Thomas Sheridan deployed Shakespeare’s status to subdue and discipline Dublin’s many factions into a singular audience. The second section investigates the traffic between the London and Dublin stages, as the actors who catapulted Shakespeare performances to national attention travelled between the Irish and English Theatres Royal. As more Britons became culturally enfranchised, Irish actors lent national intertexts to their Shakespeare characters, staging complex questions about cultural inclusivity. The final section returns to Dublin, where revolutionary spirit championed new styles of Irish performance and sent Shakespeare performances into the private halls of the small group who clung to power. By the end of the century, Shakespeare was deeply embedded in Irish self-identification, even as Anglo-Irish Shakespeare performance waned.

Authors: Saidenberg, M

• Alternative title: Shakespeare in eighteenth-century Dublin: performing an Anglo-Irish playwright, 1707-1801
• DOI: 10.5287/ora-zb8qond60
• Type of award: DPhil
• Level of award: Doctoral
• Awarding institution: University of Oxford
• Language: English
• Keywords: Ireland; Dublin; theatre; performance history; eighteenth-century; Anglo-Irish; Shakespeare
• Subjects: Eighteenth-century theatre; Shakespeare