THE REPRESENTATION OF FOOD ON THE IRISH STAGE FROM 1968 TO 2023 IRISH FOOD HERITAGE: FROM COLONIAL DEPRIVATION TO POSTCOLONIAL UNEXPECTED GASTRONOMICAL FUSION
THE REPRESENTATION OF FOOD ON THE IRISH STAGE FROM 1968 TO 2023 IRISH FOOD HERITAGE: FROM COLONIAL DEPRIVATION TO POSTCOLONIAL UNEXPECTED GASTRONOMICAL FUSION

Summary/Abstract: Conjuring the representation of food as well as its opposite counterpart, hunger, requires a kaleidoscopic approach to understanding the role, consumption of, and craving for food both on and offstage in the Republic of Ireland from the period of the Troubles (1968-1998) to post-Brexit Ireland. This includes examining its presence in Irish theatres, its representation, its appropriation, and political glorification, as well as its associated rituals from the cradle to the grave (anniversaries, celebrations, festivals, rites of passage, funeral ceremonies) to explore interrelated topics such as postcolonial dietary habits and a vanishing cultural identity overflown by an unfathomable process of globalization. How is food or hunger portrayed on stage? To what extent does food reflect changing modes of sociability and highlight an international gastronomical fusion? We will first explore how the representation of food as well as its opposite counterpart, hunger during the Troubles partake in the shaping of a national identity. We will then see how a growing number of translations and adaptations of foreign writers changed the representation of food on the Irish stage before and after the Good Friday Agreement (1998) engendering a culture and language in which the Irish, after centuries of hosting a foreign linguistic host, felt at home. And finally, we will focus on the representation of food in the various adaptations of Molière on the Abbey stage from 1968 onwards to demonstrate a growing socio-cultural and gastronomical interest in Molière exemplified by the latest translation/ adaptation of Tartuffe by Frank McGuinness

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