Nation

Arguably the nationnation and its many anti-colonial, postcolonial, Troubles-era, post-conflict and early twenty-first-century permutations remain the defining thematic obsession of contemporary Irish theatre. This chapter contributes elucidating frameworks for navigating how contemporary Irish theatre continues to dramatise and negotiate these complex and contested dimensions of the nationnation from the perspective of past, present and future. The three frameworks and accompanying case studies that model the application of these critical lenses to key theatre productions are: