Grief, Guilt, and Ghosts: Fantastic Strategies of Staging Loss on the Contemporary Irish Stage

Abstract

The loss of a loved one is an experience that most of us have to cope with at one point or another in our lives. Therefore, it is not surprising that this kind of loss also figures prominently in drama. Interestingly, in contemporary Anglo-Irish drama, the loss of loved ones and especially the ensuing consequences for the living are frequently presented by means of fantastic strategies. The fantastic emerges when there is cause for hesitation between rational and irrational explanations, e.g., hesitating whether to attribute a seemingly inexplicable event to a character’s mental instability or to a magical or supernatural agency. Plays by Marina Carr, Conor McPherson, and Declan Hughes all show an inclination towards the fantastic—towards oscillating between the rational and irrational, using this for dramatic purposes and for the exploration of loss and its psychological consequences for the ones that have been left behind. Drawing on theories of the fantastic by Todorov, Jackson, Durst, and others, this chapter explores fantastic representations of loss on the contemporary Irish stage.