Abstract

This double issue of Scene is the first special issue of a peer-reviewed international journal since the early 2000s to focus on Performance Studies as it relates to Ireland. It provides a forum for examining a range of artistic practices as well as for studying different indigenous, migrant, and diasporic Irish cultures through the lenses of performance and performativity. Collectively, the articles included here examine the pivotal role that performance has played in constructing and negotiating Irish identities within and beyond the island of Ireland, historically as well as in contemporary life and artistic practice.

The scope of this special issue is aligned with the interdisciplinary field of Performance Studies, particularly in relation to visuality, spectacle and display. As such, it also connects with Shannon Jackson’s claim that ‘visual culture seems to require performance for its seeing to be shown’ (Jackson 2005: 164). We have included contributions on regional, national, and international theatre, performance and audio/visual cultures relating to Ireland, in addition to using performance as a frame for examining wider sociocultural and political engagements with Irishness. The fourteen articles included here offer fresh perspectives on the global field of Irish Studies by supplementing the traditional literary leanings of that field with examinations of more ephemeral, experiential and multimedia phenomena. This special issue includes examinations of Ireland and Irishness from the perspectives of performance studies and visual culture and draws attention to ways in which these two fields productively intersect.