social world of midlands ireland: presentation outline

8/2/2019 Social World of Midlands Ireland: Presentation Outline

1/5

Ian HuttonTHE 390 Presentation Overview

The Irish audience who saw BBOC at the Abbey Theatre in Dublinin 1998 came to see the production with a specific worldview.Their worldview was based on what was happening to Ireland atthis time, which is what has been referred to as the Celtic Tiger

Era.

This was a period of rapid change during the 1980s and

90s in Ireland:o The highest growth of per capita income of any nation in the

European Union

o When the century ended, 3000 farmers a year were leaving

the land.(Foster, 26)

o The nightly rosary was slowly being displaced by the impact of

television on family life (Foster, 37)

o The role of Catholicism was changing dramatically

As late as 1990, it could be claimed that 85% of theIrish adult population attended church once weekly; but by1997this had fallen to 65%, and far lower than thatamong the urban young. (Foster, 57)

Land Ownershipo One of the most important parts of rural Irish society

o Referred to time and time again in the play

o Thomas OHanlon underscores the importance of land to the

Irish when he says: Land has been to the Irish what hiddengold was to the hard-rock miners of the Klondikethe motherlode (OHanlon, 45).

o Represents power, status, and family continuity

o What makes Xavier important in the community and what

Carthage wants by marrying Caroline

o Large part of the struggle between Hester and Carthage

o Regarding the conflict between Old Ireland (and its traditions)

and Celtic Tiger Ireland, land seems to represent both aspects.In terms of old, traditional Ireland, nothing is more important inthe rural areas than land and the family preservation of land.


2/5


The very greedy approaches by Carthage and Xavier, however,seem to refer more to Celtic Tiger Ireland, where the acquisitionof money and property was so important.

o In an interview I read, Carr emphasized the importance of landin the play, equating it with being another character I feel strongly that we need to be sure to relate to this in our

production

Livestock

o Almost as important as land to rural Irish people

o Many references to cattle throughout BBOC

o In The Irish Countryman, Conrad Arensberg explains that worth

of Irish farmer is measured by how many cows he has or howmany his property can support

o Hesters slaughter of Carthages cattle is important because it

destroys what is of value to him, just as it is important to allother Irish farmers

o Again, we need to make sure that we include this in our staging

and make this importance clear to our audience

o One way we could do this is by actually hearing the distressed

sounds of the cattle as we enter Act Three

Community Structure and Outsiderso This is a very small farming community, even the town seems

like a strange and faraway place

o Outsiders are not welcomed

Hester considered outsider because of her Tinker roots Tinkers represent old Ireland

According to Lawrence Millman:

o Hatred of the Tinker, I think, is hatred of the past.The more violent it is, the greater the need to blot out past images, to lie about origins, to sever theconnections between history and ones own personFor Tinkers are like survivors from past generations ofrural Ireland(Millman, 88)

Another example of how Hester represents old Ireland in

this play


3/5


I think that the best way to emphasize who the Tinkersare to our American audience is to write a program noteexplaining their origins and status in Irish society

Role of Womeno Hester

A complicated character, but most Critics generally agreethat as a woman, she represents old, rural, traditionalIreland

This quote explains this well:

Carrs play is about isolated, rural, Pagan Ireland, as

represented by Hester, and its struggle to maintain itstraditions against the new conventions of universalmodernity, as represented by her community. As the

majority of the characters try to separate themselvesfrom this older conception of the space in which theylive, Hester embodies all the outmoded traditions thatthey are working against. By the Bog of Cats thereforeillustrates the struggle between the traditions of Irelandand the recent national movement towards the Europeannormalcy. (Kader, 167-8)

o Caroline She represents the new Ireland, whereas Hester represents

the old Ireland

Caroline shows little interest for the farm or the land, or

in anything of substance

All she talks about is how disappointed she is in how her

wedding with Carthage turned out, and how it was notwhat she had wanted:o and the weddin was goin to be in this big

ballroom, with a fountain of mermaids in themiddle (Plays 1, 336)

It is important that Caroline represents modern Ireland in

our production Possibly have props/accessories that embody this

modernity (WalkMan? Cell Phone?)


4/5


Family and Marriage

o Three families represented in the play:

Cassidys

Seem to be the pillars of their small society (at least on

the surface) because of amount of land and money theypossess

Kilbrides

Attempting to become what they see the Cassidys to be

They understand that to be a laborer, and not a land

owner, will keep them at the bottom of the socialhierarchy

Land means power and the more land one owns, the

more power that he or she hasthats what the Kilbrideswant and Cassidys have

Swanes Seems like the dysfunctional one, but she really has more

love and care and strong ties to her family than either ofthe other two families

Religion

o No institution of more historical importance to rural Ireland

than religion, and more specifically the Catholic Churcho Carr specifically attacks Catholicism through the wedding and

references to Communion Wedding

Father Willow Three different people showing up in wedding dresses

the wedding scene is a direct attack on all traditional

institutions of the Symbolic Order: church, state, family,and marriage are all parodied and presented by Carr asfalse icons (Sayn, 84)

Communion (occurs in Ireland at 7)

Hester left by her mother while wearing Communion

dress at age 7

Josie killed by Hester while wearing her Communion dressat age 7

o Could possibly have some symbol to Catholicism in scenery

(i.e. Celtic Cross)


5/5


Folklore and Superstition

o Catwoman is personification of superstition vs. religion

Though she is as much of an outcast as Hester, she isaccepted on many levels within the community

Acceptance partly due to the fact that many members ofcommunity are scared of repercussions of not includingher in social functions

o Important to somehow emphasize difference between

Catholicism and superstition in our production, while alsotaking Carrs mockery of Catholicism into account

Conclusiono Although not an integral part of the play, the scene between

Catwoman and the Waiter in the PowerPoint sums up one of themain conflicts in the playthe conflict between old, traditionalIreland and the new, modern Irelandand the stress that thisputs on the social world of the plays characters. I have foundin my research that the social world of rural Ireland is in theprocess of being destroyed. In fact, R. F. Foster says in his bookLuck & The Irish: the Ireland of 1949 might have existed on another

planet when compared to the country at the turn of themillenniumit is the rate of change in the last thirty yearsof the twentieth century that is most bewildering. Partlybecause of the archaic nature of life in Ireland up to then,the shock of the new could only be all the more radical.(Foster, 3)

o The Irish audience that originally saw By the Bog of Cats

understood and felt this shock. While an American audiencedoes not have this perspective, it is important that ourproduction conveys this tension between old and new Ireland.The social world of the characters in By The Bog of Cats canbest be understood with this knowledge.

social world of midlands ireland: presentation outline

Documents