|
Search over 100 encyclopedias and dictionaries: |
Research categories | Follow us on Twitter |
Research categories
View all topics in the newsView all reference sources at Encyclopedia.com |
|||
Clarke, Austin
Clarke, Austin (1896–1974), Irish poet, dramatist, and novelist, who kept interest in verse drama alive in Ireland during the 20 years following the death of Yeats. His first play, The Son of Learning, was performed at the Cambridge Festival Theatre (see GRAY, TERENCE) in 1927 and the Gate Theatre, Dublin, as The Hunger Demon, in 1930. Two short plays set in a convent, The Flame (1932) and Sister Eucharia (1939), were also staged at the Gate Theatre. Black Fast, a one-act farce based on a medieval debate, was produced by the Abbey Theatre company in 1941. In 1944 Clarke established the Lyric Players to revive poetic drama. Among his own plays produced by this group at the Abbey Theatre were The Viscount of Blarney (1944), The Second Kiss (1946), As the Crow Flies (1948), and The Plot Succeeds (1950), a ‘poetic pantomime’. Although many of Clarke's plays are set in medieval or legendary Ireland and reflect the satirical tone of early Irish writers, his works comment thoughtfully and provocatively on contemporary issues, probing the conflict between faith and reason and between individual conscience and established teaching.
|
|
|
Cite this article
PHYLLIS HARTNOLL and PETER FOUND. "Clarke, Austin." The Concise Oxford Companion to the Theatre. 1996. Encyclopedia.com. 30 May. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>. PHYLLIS HARTNOLL and PETER FOUND. "Clarke, Austin." The Concise Oxford Companion to the Theatre. 1996. Encyclopedia.com. (May 30, 2012). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O79-ClarkeAustin.html PHYLLIS HARTNOLL and PETER FOUND. "Clarke, Austin." The Concise Oxford Companion to the Theatre. 1996. Retrieved May 30, 2012 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O79-ClarkeAustin.html |
|
Clarke, Austin
Clarke, Austin (1896–1974), Irish poet and verse dramatist. He published some 18 volumes of poetry, from his first, The Vengeance of Fionn (1917) to his Collected Poems of 1974. His early work is influenced by Yeats and the Celtic Twilight, but much of his later work is sharply satiric and highly critical of his own nation's attitudes; in form it is subtle and complex, with an unobtrusive technical expertise. Clarke was also greatly interested in verse drama; he founded the Dublin Verse-Speaking Society in 1938, which developed into the Lyric Theatre Company and performed many of his own plays as well as those of Bottomley, T. S. Eliot, and others. Clarke's plays are rooted in medieval Irish legend, but many have pantomime or farcical elements. His Collected Plays were published in 1963.
|
|
|
Cite this article
MARGARET DRABBLE and JENNY STRINGER. "Clarke, Austin." The Concise Oxford Companion to English Literature. 2003. Encyclopedia.com. 30 May. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>. MARGARET DRABBLE and JENNY STRINGER. "Clarke, Austin." The Concise Oxford Companion to English Literature. 2003. Encyclopedia.com. (May 30, 2012). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O54-ClarkeAustin.html MARGARET DRABBLE and JENNY STRINGER. "Clarke, Austin." The Concise Oxford Companion to English Literature. 2003. Retrieved May 30, 2012 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O54-ClarkeAustin.html |
|
Search over 100 encyclopedias and dictionaries:
HighBeam™ Research, Inc. © Copyright 2012. All rights reserved.
The Encyclopedia.com advertising network includes:
