Abstract
The relationship between civic and domestic space is interrogated in Clarke’s chapter as she examines one playwright’s dynamic use of the physical family house and its material trappings onstage. A Night in November refracts the conflict between Northern Ireland’s Protestant and Catholic communities by reevaluating home ownership as a form of colonial control. Defying peace walls and military blockades, the main character enters Belfast’s “other” community, or “bandit country,” where he unexpectedly finds, instead of propaganda, lawns “strewn with life.” Hence, Jones uses competing conceptions of home to materialize domestic tensions and conflict as they pertain to ideologies of community, religion, and nation.
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Notes
- 1.
Brian Graham, “Ireland and Irishness: Place, Culture and Identity,” In Search of Ireland: A Cultural Geography, ed. Graham (London: Routledge, 1997), 8.
- 2.
J. C. Cornell, “‘Different Countries, Different Worlds’: The Representation of Northern Ireland in Stewart Parker’s Lost Belongings,” Contemporary Irish Cinema: From the Quiet Man to Dancing at Lughnasa, ed. J MacKillop (Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press, 1999), 71.
- 3.
Seamus Heaney. “Correspondences: Immigrants and Inner Exiles.” Migrations: The Irish at Home and Abroad, ed. Richard Kearney (Dublin: Wolfhound Press, 1990), 22.
- 4.
Marilynn Richtarik, Acting Between the Lines: The Field Day Theatre Company and Irish Cultural Politics 1980–1984 (Washington, DC: The Catholic University of America Press, 2001), 5.
- 5.
While the play was well received by crowds, some critics, including Jane Coyle, Fintan O’Toole, and Tom Maguire, have noted that Kenneth’s transformation comes about too easily and that his readings of the nationalist community as freer or more romantic present their own issues of colonialism and reductive stereotyping.
- 6.
Eberhard Bort, “From Partition to At the Black Pig’s Dyke: The Irish Border Play,” in The Irish Border: History, Politics, Culture, eds. Malcolm Anderson and Eberhard Bort (Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 1999), 275.
- 7.
Field Day Theatre Company was founded by Brian Friel and Stephen Rea in 1980, and Charabanc was founded in 1983 by Eleanor Methven, Marie Jones, Carol Scanlan (Moore), Brenda Winter, and Maureen McAuley. Both companies sought to use the space of the theatre auditorium to foster dialogue about sociopolitical conditions in Northern Ireland and established models of touring that engaged isolated communities and audiences on both sides of the Irish border.
- 8.
Quoted in Fiona Coffey, “Marie Jones and DubbelJoint Theatre Company: Performance, Practice, and Controversy,” The Theatre of Marie Jones: Telling Stories from the Ground Up, eds. Eugene McNulty and Tom Maquire (Dublin: Carysfort Press, 2015), 107.
- 9.
Ibid.
- 10.
Wallace McDowell, “Overcoming Working-Class Ulster Loyalism’s Resistance to Theatricality after the Peace Process,” Contemporary Theatre Review 23.3 (2013): 325.
- 11.
Ibid., 325.
- 12.
Marie Jones, A Night in November (London: Nick Hern Books, 2000), 71.
- 13.
As the BBC reports, “[i]n the half century of Northern Ireland’s existence, the Catholic minority had been subject to various kinds of discrimination as Unionists took steps to protect their power—most notably by manipulating public housing. Only ratepayers or householders were eligible to vote and successive unionist politicians were reluctant to build houses that would grant suffrage.” BBC News. n.d. Web. http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/static/northern_ireland/understanding/events/civil_rights.stm
- 14.
Ralf Brand, “Written and Unwritten Building Conventions in a Contested City: The Case of Belfast,” Urban Studies 46.12 (2009): 2674. See also, Jonathan Harden, “Performance and Potentiality: Violence, Procession, and Space,” Performing Violence in Contemporary Ireland, ed. Lisa Fitzpatrick (Dublin: Carysfort Press, 2009); Peter Shirlow and Brendan Murtagh, Belfast: Segregation, Violence and the City (Pluto Press, 2006).
- 15.
Brian Graham and Catherine Nash, “A Shared Future: Territoriality, Pluralism and Public policy in Northern Ireland,” Political Geography 25 (2006): 254.
- 16.
Catherine Switzer and Sara McDowell, “Redrawing Cognitive Maps of Conflict: Lost Spaces and Forgetting the Centre of Belfast,” Memory Studies 2.3 (2009): 340.
- 17.
Jean E. Abshire, “Northern Ireland’s Politics in Paint,” Peace Review 15.2 (2003): 149–161.
- 18.
Jones, A Night in November, 63.
- 19.
Ibid.
- 20.
Loredana Salis, “‘Immigrant Games’: Sports as a Metaphor for Social Encounter in Contemporary Drama,” Irish Studies Review 18.1 (2010): 57.
- 21.
Mike Cronin, “Playing Away from Home: Identity in Northern Ireland and the Experience of Derry City Football Club,” National Identities 2.1 (2000): 66.
- 22.
Jones, A Night in November, 72.
- 23.
David Hassan, “A People Apart: Soccer, Identity and Irish Nationalists in Northern Ireland,” Soccer and Society 3.3 (Autumn 2002): 69.
- 24.
This understanding of soccer shifted significantly throughout the 2000s as the popularity of soccer came to be understood as a potential way for Ireland and Northern Ireland to embrace globalization. This was recognized in a 2007 production of the play at Belfast’s Grand Opera House. Eleanor Owicki notes that the program contained an article about “the ways in which football had worked to eradicate the sectarianism and racism depicted in the play.” Eleanor Owicki, “I am a Protestant Man, an Irish Man: Politics, Identity and A Night in November,” in The Theatre of Marie Jones: Telling Stories from the Ground Up, eds. Eugene McNulty and Tom Maguire (Dublin: Carysfort Press, 2015), 139.
- 25.
Jones, A Night in November, 78.
- 26.
Ibid., 76.
- 27.
Ibid., 81.
- 28.
Joseph Ruane and Jennifer Todd, “‘Why Can’t You Get Along with Each Other?’: Culture, Structure and the Northern Ireland Conflict,” Culture and Politics in Northern Ireland, 1960–1990 (Milton Keynes: Open University Press, 1991), 26–43.
- 29.
Jones, A Night in November, 83.
- 30.
Ibid., 84.
- 31.
Ibid., 83.
- 32.
This theme is particularly evident around the turn of the twentieth century. In political cartoons, Ireland is frequently portrayed as a helpless maiden (Hibernia) being terrorized by simian-like Irish anarchists; she is saved by Britannia or St. George. See L. Perry Curtis, Jr., Apes And Angels: The Irishman in Victorian Caricature (Washington, D.C., Smithsonian; 2nd Revised edition: 2004); Mary Trotter, Ireland’s National Theaters: Political Performance and the Origins of the Irish Dramatic Movement (Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press, 2001).
- 33.
Notably, the play itself does struggle with these colonial stereotypes. By portraying the unionist home as cool and ordered and the nationalist home as wild and Romantic, it does little to disrupt the narrative. However, it does reveal the role that social class plays in such identities and begins a process of questioning how such narratives are perpetuated.
- 34.
Jones, A Night in November, 81.
- 35.
Ibid., 93.
- 36.
Ibid., 95.
- 37.
Ibid., 94.
- 38.
Ibid.
- 39.
The Declaration allowed the people of Ireland the right to self-determination and decreed that Northern Ireland would be transferred to the Republic of Ireland if a majority of its population favored this move in a referendum.
- 40.
Jones, A Night in November, 90.
- 41.
Eleanor Owicki, “Rattle Away at Your Bin: Women, Community, and Bin Lids in Northern Irish Drama,” Theatre Symposium 18 (2010): 57.
- 42.
Jones, A Night in November, 81.
- 43.
Ibid., 82.
- 44.
Ibid., 83.
- 45.
Ibid.
- 46.
Ibid., 82.
- 47.
Ibid., 89.
- 48.
Ibid.
- 49.
Ibid., 108.
- 50.
Tom Maguire, Making Theatre In Northern Ireland: Through and Beyond the Troubles (Exeter: University of Exeter Press, 2006), 3.
Works Cited
Abshire, Jean E. “Northern Ireland’s Politics in Paint.” Peace Review, vol. 15, no. 2, 2003, pp. 149–161.
Anon. “Northern Ireland: Civil Rights, 1967–1969.” BBC News. http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/static/northern_ireland/understanding/events/civil_rights.stm.
Bort, Eberhard. “From Partition to At the Black Pig’s Dyke: The Irish Border Play.” The Irish Border: History, Politics, Culture, eds. Malcolm Anderson and Eberhard Bort. Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 1999, pp. 255–286.
Brand, Ralf. “Written and Unwritten Building Conventions in a Contested City: The Case of Belfast.” Urban Studies, vol. 46, no. 12, 2009, pp. 2269–2289.
Coffey, Fiona. “Marie Jones and DubbelJoint Theatre Company: Performance, Practice, and Controversy.” The Theatre of Marie Jones: Telling Stories from the Ground Up, eds. Eugene McNulty and Tom Maquire. Dublin: Carysfort Press, 2015, pp. 107–121.
Cornell, J. C. “‘Different Countries, Different Worlds’: The Representation of Northern Ireland in Stewart Parker’s Lost Belongings.” Contemporary Irish Cinema: From the Quiet Man to Dancing at Lughnasa, ed. J MacKillop. Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press, 1999, pp. 71–84.
Cronin, Mike. “Playing Away from Home: Identity in Northern Ireland and the Experience of Derry City Football Club.” National Identities, vol. 2, no. 1, 2000, pp. 65–79.
Curtis, L. Perry Jr. Apes And Angels: The Irishman in Victorian Caricature. 2nd Revised edition, Washington, DC: Smithsonian, 2004.
Graham, Brian. “Ireland and Irishness: Place, Culture and Identity.” In Search of Ireland: A Cultural Geography, ed. Brian Graham. London: Routledge, 1997, pp. 1–16.
Graham, Brian and Catherine Nash. “A Shared Future: Territoriality, Pluralism and Public policy in Northern Ireland.” Political Geography, vol. 25, 2006, pp. 253–278.
Harden, Jonathan. “Performance and Potentiality: Violence, Procession, and Space.” Performing Violence in Contemporary Ireland, ed. Lisa Fitzpatrick. Dublin: Carysfort Press, 2009, pp. 189–204.
Hassan, David. “A People Apart: Soccer, Identity and Irish Nationalists in Northern Ireland.” Soccer and Society, vol. 3, no. 3, Autumn 2002, pp. 65–83.
Heaney, Seamus. “Correspondences: Immigrants and Inner Exiles.” Migrations: The Irish at Home and Abroad, ed. Richard Kearney. Dublin: Wolfhound Press, 1990.
Jones, Marie. A Night in November. London: Nick Hern Books, 2000.
Maguire, Tom. Making Theatre In Northern Ireland: Through and Beyond the Troubles. Exeter: University of Exeter Press, 2006.
McDowell, Wallace. “Overcoming Working-Class Ulster Loyalism’s Resistance to Theatricality after the Peace Process.” Contemporary Theatre Review, vol. 23, no. 3, 2013.
Owicki, Eleanor. “I am a Protestant Man, an Irish Man: Politics, Identity and A Night in November.” The Theatre of Marie Jones: Telling Stories from the Ground Up, eds. Eugene McNulty and Tom Maguire. Dublin: Carysfort Press, 2015, pp. 127–140.
———. “Rattle Away at Your Bin: Women, Community, and Bin Lids in Northern Irish Drama.” Theatre Symposium, vol. 18, 2010, pp. 56–66.
Richtarik, Marilynn. Acting Between the Lines: The Field Day Theatre Company and Irish Cultural Politics 1980–1984. Washington, DC: The Catholic University of America Press, 2001.
Ruane, Joseph and Jennifer Todd. “‘Why Can’t You Get Along with Each Other?’: Culture, Structure and the Northern Ireland Conflict.” Culture and Politics in Northern Ireland, 1960–1990. Milton Keynes: Open University Press, 1991, pp. 26–43.
Salis, Loredana. “‘Immigrant Games’: Sports as a Metaphor for Social Encounter in Contemporary Drama.” Irish Studies Review, vol. 18, no. 1, 2010, pp. 57–68.
Shirlow, Peter and Brendan Murtagh. Belfast: Segregation, Violence and the City. Pluto Press, 2006.
Switzer, Catherine and Sara McDowell. “Redrawing Cognitive Maps of Conflict: Lost Spaces and Forgetting the Centre of Belfast.” Memory Studies, vol. 2, no. 3, 2009, pp. 337–353.
Trotter, Mary. Ireland’s National Theaters: Political Performance and the Origins of the Irish Dramatic Movement. Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press, 2001.
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Clarke, A. (2019). Home Games: Contesting Domestic Geographies in Marie Jones’s A Night in November. In: Klein, E., Mobley, JS., Stevenson, J. (eds) Performing Dream Homes. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-01581-7_4
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