Thomas Kilroy and the Idea of a Theatre

In the late 1950s Thomas Kilroy wrote a series of formative articles, which collectively form something like a manifesto for Irish theatre since 1960. ‘In the past twenty years,’ Kilroy wrote in ‘Groundwork for an Irish Theatre’, ‘few Irish dramatists have been in any way exciting technically.’ Responding to Hugh Leonard’s scenographically originalStephen D(1962) and Brian Friel’s experiments with memory and subjectivity inPhiladelphia, Here I Come!(1964), Kilroy answered his own challenge in the innovative form and subjects of his drama: the metatheatrical history playThe O’Neill(1969); the radical treatment of the then taboo theme of homosexuality inThe Death and Resurrection of Mr Roche(1968); the surrealTea and Sex and Shakespeare(1976); and the brilliantly inventive use of scenic space in the dramatization of the life of Matt Talbot inTalbot’s Box(1977).