Chapter 8 - The Idea of an Eighteenth-Century National Theatre

Summary

From the early years of the eighteenth century onwards, Dublin theatre managements attempted to formulate an idea of a ‘National Theatre’ for Ireland. The most famous of these managers was Thomas Sheridan the Younger (1719–1788), whose assertions that Dublin could support only one venue for serious theatre and that only he was competent to manage it were met with considerable scepticism. Controversies raged as to what an Irish national theatre ought to present, how it should cherish Irish creative talent, and to what authority should such a theatre be accountable, and these debates dominate much of the rest of the century. At the heart of the issue is whether such a patriotic cultural initiative should function independently of the vice-regal patronage of Dublin Castle. Should such a theatre cater for popular taste or should it function ‘in advance’ of prevalent opinion? Such issues are difficult enough in the context of a twenty-first-century independent state, but in a colonised nation that retains some of the trappings of autonomy without actual self-government, such issues were inflammatory.