Abstract

Despite scenography’s role in the construction of Ireland as lived on the stage, its documentation is relatively fragmented and the country has participated only twice (in 2007 and 2015) in the world’s largest exhibition of scenography: the Prague Quadrennial, or PQ. The core of PQ, since its founding in 1967, has consisted of displays showcasing representative scenographies from a growing number of countries and regions around the world, presenting recent trends in the field within largely national exhibition formats. As John Bury wrote in the catalogue description accompanying the UK’s exhibition at the PQ in 1983, ‘theatre design is not just an academie subject but reflects the cultural and artistic heritage of a nation’ (PQ archive). John Comiskey, curator of Ireland’s 2007 entry, admitted that it was ‘ridiculous’ that Ireland had not participated till then, but he was hopeful that participation would improve future documentation of Irish stage design: ‘It is hard for people to keep that model box if they have no reason to keep it. PQ will give their documentation a purpose, a reason to keep their material’ (qtd. in Keating 2007). Key archival collections such as the ‘Pike Theatre Papers’ at Trinity College Dublin, ‘The Dublin Gate Theatre Papers 1928-1979’ at the Charles Deering McCormick Library of Special Collections, Northwestern University, and the Abbey Theatre Digital Archive at the National University of Ireland, Galway, all help to resource the composition of stage design histories, even though scenographic remains are scattered across a range of collections. In spite of the fact that many Irish productions have not left ‘a publically documented legacy’ (McMullan 2016, 103), urgent questions need to be considered. In what ways has scenography reflected Ireland’s cultural and artistic heritage, particularly following the establishment of the Irish Republic in 1949? Broadly, what trends might be seen to have characterised design for theatre and performance in Ireland within and beyond the latter half of the twentieth century?