Negotiating Differences in the Plays of Frank McGuinness

The career of the playwright Frank McGuinness encapsulates the trajectory of identity politics in Ireland since the mid-1980s. McGuiness first achieved major recognition forObserve the Sons of Ulsterin 1985, a play by a Catholic playwright exploring the Ulster Unionist psyche and a continuum of male relationships from the homosexual to the homosocial. This play set the template for McGuinness’ future work, in which characters cross the expected boundaries of gender and cultural identity in ways that both transgress and respect existing categories. His later plays, such asCarthaginians(1988),Someone Who’ll Watch OverMe(1992),Mutabilitie(1997), andGates of Gold(2002), all incorporate slightly different perspectives on the general topics of Other, difference, and identity. Dramatic form reinforces those thematic concerns, and both characters and audiences must confront their own realities and negotiate differences.