Frank McGuinness - Knowledge

512:

beginning really. A terrific thing to say when you're 20 or 21. And I went from there". 'Booterstown' (1994), is rooted in the town of the same name; 'The Stone Jug' (2003) is a sequence of sixty sonnets; 'Dulse' (2008), takes its name from a Latin word meaning 'sweet', which is also the name of an edible seaweed used in Ireland. Broadly, McGuinness poetic style is characterised by the use of clear solid unrhymed lines designed to echo in the mind of the listener or reader. The poems often seek to organise emotion, and sometimes represent probing psychological sketches. They are concerned with relationships, events, and the significance of the everyday. The poems are snapshots, often inspired by personal experience, but sometimes created to supplement or assist in delineating fictional characters for his plays. One critic has claimed that McGuinness's poetic work is characterised by its "reliance on dramatic monologue and on intense lyricism". The Memorial Garden at University College Dublin, designed in a circular shape, features a carved stone with a short poem written by Frank McGuinness for the site: "This silence is round / So is remembrance, / they say".

524:, was published in 2013. It has been described as " story of salvation". The book is set in a village in Donegal in 1950, registering the effect of the arrival of an Italian painter who "came from out foreign and … spoke wild funny". The story, told from the point of view of various characters, is inspired by a historic Italian artist who was commissioned to paint the Stations of the Cross in the catholic church of Buncrana in the 1900s. McGuinness wrote the book as research for his play The Hanging Gardens, but never thought it would be published as a novel. The story of the play deals with a novelist who contracts Alzheimer's disease, and progressively loses control of his mind; in order to understand the character better, McGuinness decided to try to write a novel that that man could have written, and the result was 549:. At the book launch, Joycean scholar professor Anne Fogarty spoke of her surprise at opening the book to meet the voice of Giorgio Joyce, a figure neglected by Joycean scholars. Fogarty said that McGuinness' novel has "liberated" the Joyce family from historiographers and biographers, and described the book as "wise and witty". At the launch, Frank McGuinness explained that he fell under the spell of Joyce as a young man, when he heard Joni Mitchel read out the opening one and a half pages from the novel 'Portrait of the Artist'. McGuinness also said that he was aware, in taking on the project of a novel about the Joyces, that he was "putting my head into a zoo-worth of lions' mouths", but that this would not stop him. 528:. In addition to this piece of work, McGuinness also conducted other research for the play, by interviewing people with experience of elderly parents being affected by Alzheimer's disease. While one reviewer claimed that "there is nothing like in the history of Irish fiction", another stated that Arimathea is "a distinctively Irish book, and one in which echoes of Joyce vie with those of Máirtín Ó Cadhain". Many commentators pointed out that this choral novel, told in a series of monologues, makes good use of Frank McGuinness' experience in the theatre, including his ability to render individualised voices. His background as a poet may also have been relevant to 331:, also premiered in 1982, and dealt with a group of female workers facing redundancy from a small town in Donegal. McGuinness explained that he was inspired by "the women in my family". A critic has highlighted its "Wednesday to Sunday time frame", in a link to Catholic imagery which, surprisingly given its theme, indicates that this is in fact "a passion play". "When I wrote 'The Factory Girls'," McGuiness has explained, "I desperately wanted to bring across the audience a sense that I came from a sophisticated background, I come from a background where language is very dangerous, where language is very layered." 609:, has been occasionally performed as a chronologically ordered, three-play show. For his version, McGuinness made the decision to change the traditional order in the story. He explained that "I've always thought that putting at the end of the evening short-changes it remarkably. Although it's the final part of the trilogy, it never feels like the end; in fact, it almost feels as if it were by a different writer." While some critics did not approve of the switch, they still described the opera as "distinctly impressive". 434:, who were lifelong partners in life and work, and the play is about them. McGuinness, who is himself gay and whose plays often contain gay relationships or explore more traditional family drama from an outsider's perspective, has explained that he "wanted to write a play that was a great celebration of homosexual marriage, love, partnership". The playwright has a drawing of MacLiammoir, by Norah McGuinness, in his sitting room, a work "which I bought with the royalties of the 419:". McGuinness has explained that the arrival of US troops into the town of Buncrana was not only an invasion in terms of the military presence, but also an "invasion of sexuality", as the soldiers made quite an impression in the town. But the main theme in the play "… was to do with a gigantic sorrow in my life, which is that my mother died". This was the heart of the story, because, McGuinness explained, when the mother dies, "the children have to grow up". 388:. It is in effect a tragi-comedy which explores the relationship between three hostages, one American, one Irish and one English. Despite their contrasting backgrounds and beliefs the play soon erodes away their differences and brings to the fore the shared humanity that they rely on in order to cope with the horrors and uncertainties of their incarceration. In his introduction to Frank McGuinness: Plays 2 (a collection of plays which included 697: 357:, about the Biblical story of the father whose faith is tested by God's request that he kill his son. In the painting, a sheep watches the sacrifice about to take place and looks appalled at human cruelty, its innocence shattered. McGuinness was inspired by "this innocent sheep" who, at the end of the story, will be sacrificed instead of the child. "Only Caravaggio would remember the sheep" in the story, McGuinness says. 591:. Adapting this substantial body of work onto a single story 100 minutes long was a considerable challenge. Recalling his initial conversations with the composer, McGuinness explained: "The first thing I said was: I know it will have to be much, much shorter. We looked at a two-page speech. "I can get this down to six lines," I told him – and then did just that." The Theban trilogy, comprising 404:) McGuinness explains, "At their hearts' core these plays centre around rituals and the need to disrupt ritual. In their tee-total captivity, Edward, Michael and Adam throw a wild party, somehow knowing that it's a wake. After these engagements, nothing will be the same. Comedy thrives on change. I suppose these plays are about change. Are they comedies? When they want to be." 489:, as well as short works by Strindberg and Pirandello, a short story by James Joyce, and novels by Stoker and Du Maurier. His ability to distil the raw force from classic Greek drama, in particular, has been noted by critics. He sometimes takes noticeable liberties in his adaptations, in order to strengthen characterisation—for example by making the alienated protagonist of 655:(BBC 2015), adapted from Julie Nicholson's book of the same title, about the aftermath of the 2005 Islamist terrorist bombings in London. McGuinness was also the scriptwriter for the ground-breaking television film "A Short Stay in Switzerland" (BBC 2009), dealing with euthanasia. In addition, McGuinness has scripted a number of documentaries for television, including 635:. This film's "most significant transformation of the play", one critic has pointed out, is the shifting of a defining dancing scene from the end of the first Act to the end of the story, which "reveals the defining principle of the film: it turns memory into ritual". McGuinness was also the author of the original script for "Talk of Angels", the cinema adaptation of 3672: 613:

haunted us: they are something beautiful, something brutal, and the beauty and brutality confound each other." The original trilogy is "revered as a foundational document of western civilisation", and one of the main achievements of this "dazzling new opera", a reviewer pointed out, was that "it blows apart this crippling reverence and presents the drama afresh"

617:

of its roots, Thebans may point to the future of opera". Another reviewer declared that Frank McGuinness "has supplied what seems an eminently settable, elegant condensation of the drama", and that the opera as a whole offers "he superb assurance of the writing metallically intent but underpinned by a novel harmonic richness".

562:

opera, wearing blackface. The story is told through "the pompous voice" of the protagonist, "who veers between grandiosity and despair". Structured as a fluid but self-conscious monologue, the piece has various levels of association, including a subversion ─or an update─ of the plot of Shakespeare's play

612:

McGuinness' priority in producing the libretto was to make the original text accessible to a contemporary audience. "I'm trying to make this accessible", McGuinness declared, "and to write as beautiful a text as I can for the singers to sing. And that is what I think they are, these stories that have

616:

One reviewer underlined the fact that "McGuinness has whittled Sophocles's plays down to a succession of very short, simple lines that can be easily heard when sung across an auditorium", and that "Anderson's music fills the emotional space around these lines", to conclude that "or all the antiquity

377:

and "Observe the Sons of Ulster Marching towards the Somme". In the author's own words: "I decided, right, let's grab the unicorn by the horn, and see what happens". McGuinness has declared that he had "wanted to construct a five-act Shakespearean play", and to use "narrative in a way that I hope no

372:

should be placed primarily "within a body of translations and adaptations of ancient Greek tragedy in the Irish theatre of the 1980s and 1990s". A number of critics have suggested that Ibsen is the main influence in the plays of McGuinness, something corroborated by the writer himself, who has also

511:

Frank McGuinness began his writing career as a poet. As a university student, he has explained, "I sent some poems to the 'Irish Press' and the wonderful David Marcus wrote back to me saying I'm going to publish them, and 'You are a writer'. He didn't know what he was unleashing but that was the

561:

McGuinness has published a number of short stories. The short story "Paprika", from 2014, appeared in a collection of new stories by Irish writers. "Paprika" is a tale of murder, centered on a disgruntled, mentally unstable operatic white tenor, who is currently playing the role of Othello in an

368:. In 1972, in Derry, British soldiers shot unarmed civilians who were taking part in a march against internment and killed 14 people. McGuinness has described Carthaginians as "My play on the Catholic imagination …", stating that "the keyword in is the word 'perhaps'". It has been claimed that 575:, consisting of twelve stories. It is published by Brandon, an imprint of The O'Brien Press in Dublin. The stories have been described as "uproarious and outrageous, to depict insecure, unhinged individuals who find themselves on the wrong side of a comfortable life. A startling collection" 449:

asks the question of "how do you survive the greatest loss, the loss of a child...", to conclude that "you don't recover, but you do learn to live with it". A critic summarised this "impressive drama" as "a concentrated piece that intricately dissects a middle-class family at war with itself

646:

Discussing his childhood, McGuinness has explained that, while there were no books around when he was growing up, in addition to newspapers, they had "television, which is the great subverter, a wonderful wonderful (sic) source of entertainment at the time". His television films include

461:, and the devastating effect it has on its sufferers and the people around them. McGuinness explained that: "I hope the audience laughs. And that they're shocked. I try to give them something more than they expect." One reviewer declared that the play "holds us, moves us, alarms us." 315:

Frank McGuinness has explained, "My earliest writing was … song lyrics. I would have loved to have been … Paul McCartney … Joni Mitchell". Desiring to write something "substantial", however, he "tossed a coin" between a play and a novel, and decided to write a play.

680:

A writer's task, McGuiness declared in 2015, is "to do something that no one has done before, to discover". In the same interview, he added that: "The enquiring mind, the radical mind, will always be ill at ease about what is said about a particular subject."

543:, published in September 2017, deals with the last days of James Joyce in Zurich. The novel is made of four sections, monologues from James, his partner Nora, their daughter Lucia, and son Giorgio, who are given the names of characters from Joyce's play 503:, a play about a world of amoral grotesquerie, he added a sexual assault scene. Some of these liberties have been controversial. By and large, McGuinness' adaptations have been hailed as reworkings that "breath life" into the originals. 535:

s investment in suggestion as a method and silence as an idea. "he final effect" of the novel, as one reviewer put it, "is to lead the reader to consider those voices not yet heard, and the private agonies that are never shared".

2887: 2913: 338:, was first staged in 1985. The play, about a group of Protestant soldiers in the First World War, was not primarily political in intent, but, according to the playwright, was originally inspired by "a great story". 2511: 320:, a one-act play written by McGuinness for the company Platform Group Theatre, was premiered at the Lourdes Hall Theatre in Dublin in 1982. It was one of three one-act plays presented under the collective title of 1269:

by Ramón María del Vallé-Inclán—originally a cycle of three plays under that common title: 'Silver Face', 'Rampant Eagle', and 'Wolves Romance' (Abbey Theatre, Dublin, 2000; King's Theatre, Edinburgh, 2000)

2023: 2721:

Marc C. Conner, "The Ritual of Memory in Friel's 'Dancing at Lughnasa'", R. Barton Palmer and Marc C. Conner eds, 'Screening Modern Irish Fiction and Drama', London: Palgrave, 2016, pp. 231-52, pp.242-3.

568:, an investigation on the performance of identity, and a dissection of the 'logic' of inequality, and employing "he shards of childhood", to "pierce the narrative in an unusual and thought-provoking ." 553:

is notable also because it deliberately changes historical facts. While focusing on the Joyce family, the book also includes a portrait of the Irish playwright Samuel Beckett, a friend of the Joyces.

2608: 1201:(Minerva Theatre, Chichester, 1997; McCarter Theatre, Princeton, 1998; Ethel Barrymore Theatre, NY, 1998; The Project Theatre, Dublin, 2004—directed by Frank McGuinness--; The Old Vic, London, 2014) 2639: 1225: 1992: 2314: 1510: 2115: 1764: 2145: 2949:. Retrieved on 30 August 2006. "The play, in Frank McGuinness's sinewy translation, sets the sacred against the profane, sensuality against repression and duty against instinct". 2879: 3420: 2053: 2909: 1644: 2980: 2480: 1058: 2503: 1074: 1050: 587:, produced in 2014 at the English National Opera in London. The opera is a version of the trilogy of plays by Sophocles. He was invited to write the libretto by composer 3349: 1314: 1042: 3744: 2345: 442:

looks at the dying days of MacLiammoir, because McGuinness wanted to write "something darker and stranger", and less predictable, about these two pioneers of theatre.

2577: 1082: 2015: 3784: 3839: 1486: 1022: 3819: 3809: 1030: 3244: 2253: 940: 221: 142: 103: 2600: 2084: 998: 677:

Major recurring features of McGuinness's playwriting include the treatment of historical events and the prominent inclusion of gay or bisexual characters.

3794: 2198: 1370: 1265: 964:(Peacock stage of Abbey Theatre, Dublin 1988: triple bill consisting of 'Feed the Money and Keep Them Coming'; 'Brides of Ladybag' and 'Flesh and Blood') 904: 3184: 2631: 952: 912: 2669: 974: 3480: 3120:

Kevin De Ornellas, Ibsen's seminal influence on an Irish playwright: an interview with Frank McGuinness. Irish Studies Review, 20 (2012), pp 77–84.

1928: 932: 2692: 3754: 3724: 3342: 1494: 1409: 1066: 888: 3774: 3759: 1984: 1479: 1434: 2306: 1006: 960: 2856: 3734: 1897: 1716: 378:

one had done before". He has described the play as "a big brute", adding that, among his works to date, "I suspect 'this play will last'".

373:

explained that "... there is of course another influence, that of Shakespeare...". It was this influence that triggered the composition of

1756: 3179: 2107: 1959: 816: 2826: 2137: 3335: 3211: 3174: 2045: 178:

to critical acclaim". He has also published six collections of poetry, and two novels. McGuinness was Professor of Creative Writing at

1689: 920: 3000:'Thebans - Opera in Three Acts', libretto By Frank McGuinness after Sophocles, set to music by Julian Anderson. London: Faber, 2015. 1641: 3824: 3814: 3133: 300: 2977: 2472: 1603: 229:

and internationally. The play made a name for him when it was performed at Hampstead Theatre, drawing comments about McGuinness's

3729: 3014: 241: 2452: 1806: 651:(BBC 1987), directed by Danny Boyle, about the talent scout for the football team Manchester United in Northern Ireland, and 426:, premiered in 2002, was commissioned by The Gate Theatre in Dublin to celebrate its anniversary. The theatre was founded by 2458: 2337: 1812: 1622: 1189:

by Henrik Ibsen (Playhouse Theatre, London, 1996; Belasco Theatre, NY, 1997; Fairfax Victorian Arts Centre, Melbourne, 1998)

2569: 704: 2376: 2935: 3834: 3804: 3799: 3779: 3359: 3115: 3101: 3087: 3073: 2820: 2196:

See for example Frank McGuinness' draft poems for "Greta Garbo in Donegal", at the Special Collections Library, UCD.

1673: 499:"I've invented a scene in which Mrs Danvers confronts Max and says, 'You loved her, but she didn't love you'", or in 2283: 2245: 3252: 2076: 990: 148: 110: 17: 3540: 3204: 3160: 2208: 3789: 790: 495:

into an Anglo-Irish woman from a once privileged family—or to underline the theme of the play—for example in

31: 1541:—Libretto by Frank McGuinness, after Sophocles, set to music by Julian Anderson (London Opera Company, 2014) 3764: 3040: 469:

McGuinness is as well known for his play adaptations as for his original plays. He has adapted classics by

2730:

A.L.Mentxaka, 'Kate O'Brien and the Fiction of Identity'. Jefferson (N. Carolina): McFarland, 2011, p. 80.

2661: 3287: 2739:

Deirdre Mulrooney , "Embracing the Unknown". 'UCD Commentions' magazine, Issue 13, 2008, pp. 30-2, p. 31.

1445: 3739: 2938: 1920: 1692: 3749: 3636: 3279: 3151: 2700: 1438: 1217: 1177: 636: 627: 3327: 158:, he is recognised for a "strong record of adapting literary classics, having translated the plays of 3829: 3769: 3438: 3197: 1237:

by August Strindberg (The Project Theatre, Dublin 1993—double bill with 'The Man with the Flower...')

605: 427: 307:

before being appointed Professor of Creative Writing in the School of English, Drama and Film there.

304: 203: 179: 30:

This article is about the Irish playwright. For the Australian journalist and newspaper editor, see

3618: 1205: 3534: 1122: 486: 3498: 3260: 2848: 2787: 2175: 1889: 1844: 1713: 1014: 416: 256:, adapting the literal translations of others. In addition, he wrote the screenplay for the film 154: 117: 2547: 342:

has been described as "a theater of ghosts", a play where "a community is figured as spectral".

3719: 3714: 3660: 3606: 3474: 3388: 2910:"McGuinness honoured with 2014 Irish PEN Award for Outstanding Achievement in Irish Literature" 1343: 1331: 458: 385: 1951: 3510: 2810: 1241: 3558: 3130: 2504:"Surge: New Writing from Ireland - Shards of glass and solid bricks in a winning collection" 1173:

by Anton Chekhov (Field Day Production on tour, Derry, 1995; Tricycle Theatre, London, 1995)

3709: 3582: 3564: 3456: 1350: 1141: 994:—based on Brian Keenan's 'An Evil Cradling' (1992) (Hampstead, West End and Broadway, 1992) 365: 296: 1867:

Dead Men Talking: Frank McGuinness’s Observe the Sons of Ulster Marching Towards the Somme

708: 8: 2108:"Theater Review McGuinness's vision breathes life into Sophocles' 'Electra' — Irish Echo" 1417: 1300: 1246: 1193: 982: 258: 3688: 2758: 1600: 1035: 599: 277: 3010: 1229:

by Luigi Pirandello (The Project Theatre, Dublin 1993—double bill with 'The Stronger')

3410: 3236: 3169: 3111: 3097: 3083: 3069: 2816: 2532: 2448: 1802: 1669: 1258: 1185: 945: 896: 215: 136: 96: 3600: 1453: 730: 661: 234: 207: 3142: 2749:

Cregan, David (2010). "Coming Out: McGuinness's Dramaturgy and Queer Resistance".

764:

1986 London Fringe Awards for Best Play and Best Playwright New to the Fringe for

3630: 3624: 3450: 3414: 3406: 3394: 3137: 2984: 2942: 2551: 2442: 1796: 1720: 1696: 1690:"Observe the Sons of Ulster Marching Towards the Somme at Hampstead Theatre, NW3" 1648: 1642:"Passion, betrayal and hypocrisy in new version of Ibsen's 'Ghosts' at Town Hall" 1626: 1619: 1607: 864: 588: 491: 3147: 3648: 3642: 3516: 3492: 3444: 3382: 1552: 1429: 1304:, from a novel by Daphne du Maurier (Theatre Royal, Newcastle-upon-Thyne, 2005) 1146: 431: 230: 199: 68: 3654: 3156: 2779: 2368: 2167: 1836: 3703: 3683: 3588: 3570: 3546: 3528: 3522: 3426: 3376: 3011:"The O'Brien Press | The Woodcutter and his Family, By Frank McGuinness" 2880:"Living here: Playwright and poet Frank McGuinness in Booterstown, Co Dublin" 2415: 1362: 1355: 1292: 1284: 1273: 1210: 631:(Dir. Pat O'Connor, 2005) was an adaptation of the play of the same title by 545: 249: 226: 3189: 3594: 3504: 3486: 3468: 2967:

Frank McGuinness, after Racine. 'Phaedra'. London: Faber & Faber, 2006.

1338: 1233: 1161: 1134: 478: 415:. This time was euphemistically referred to in the Republic of Ireland as " 245: 171: 131: 2958:

Frank McGuinness, from Euripides. 'Hecuba'. London: Faber and Faber, 2004.

3576: 3462: 3400: 3306: 2203: 1468: 1422: 1322: 1169: 1129: 643:, although the script was considerably modified in the final production. 632: 593: 474: 266: 244:. He has also written new versions of classic dramas, including works by 159: 2762: 2601:"A Review of Julian Anderson's 'Thebans' for the English National Opera" 2275: 3612: 3552: 3370: 3357: 3165: 1253: 925: 839: 826: 350: 175: 1389: 482: 438:", so the actor is literally a constant presence in McGuinness' life. 1327: 1278: 1198: 1153: 571:

In 2018, McGuinness published his first collection of short fiction,

470: 253: 195: 163: 299:, Medieval Studies at University College, Dublin and English at the 276:, was published in 1994. Several of his poems have been recorded by 2307:"McGuinness's first novel unique in Irish fiction - Independent.ie" 1384: 1380:, from the short story by James Joyce (Abbey Theatre, Dublin, 2012) 412: 191: 64: 1757:"Playwrights in Profile Frank McGuinness - RTÉ Drama/Drama on One" 219:, but established his reputation with his play about World War I, 1890:"Frank McGuinness: 'I'm not entirely respectable. I couldn't be'" 1714:"Frank McGuinness: 'I'm not entirely respectable. I couldn't be'" 1537: 1109: 564: 3036: 2230:

Maurice Harmon. "In the Wings: The Poetry of Frank McGuinness".

1002:(Abbey Theatre, Dublin, 1993; Pittsburgh Public Theatre, 2005; ) 625:

McGuinness has written a number of film scripts. His script for

2632:"Thebans review – Julian Anderson's dazzling new opera for ENO" 1878:"Review of Carthaginians" Liza Fitzhpatrick. 23 February 2015. 770:

1986 Plays and Players Award for Most Promising Playwright for

295:

McGuinness previously lectured in Linguistics and Drama at the

263: 3314: 1502: 1117: 1113:, from the novel by Bram Stoker (Druid Theatre, Galway, 1986) 659:(RTÉ, 2000), commemorating the premiere of Handel's oratorio 167: 1785:"Playwrights in Profile: Frank McGuinness" (RTĒ Radio, 2013) 1869:Éire-Ireland. Vol 39: 1&2 (Spring/Summer 2004): 136-62. 1374:

by Tirso de Molina (English National Theatre, London, 2012)

1181:

by Bertolt Brecht (RNT at the Oliver Theatre, London, 1997)

411:, premiered in 1999, is set during the Second World War in 2016:"The Hanging Gardens at the Abbey Theatre, Dublin, review" 1441:. Anne Guedes, and Frank McGuinness (Dir. Nick Hamm, 1998) 1478:(Limerick City Gallery of Art, 1989, with photographs by 1449:(BBC TV, 2009, based on the true story of Dr Anne Turner) 3671: 3131:

Complete Information on all of Frank McGuinness's plays

3037:"The O'Brien Press | Paprika, By Frank McGuinness" 2410:

Professor Anne Fogarty, speaking at the book launch of

2234:. Vol. 40, No. 1 (Spring/Summer 2010): 126-137, p. 126. 1601:"McGuinness named Professor of Creative Writing at UCD" 1221:

by Federico Garcia Lorca (Lyric Theatre, Belfast, 1991)

450:

following the suicide of one of their three children".

3108:

Celebrating Confusion: The Theatre of Frank McGuinness

2978:"‘Stunning reworking’ of Ibsen’s Ghosts for Town Hall" 2570:"Frank McGuinness: how I turned Oedipus into an opera" 2335: 2138:"Frank McGuinness in Conversation with Mary de Courcy" 1952:"Theatre review: There Came a Gypsy Riding at Almeida" 1157:

by Henrik Ibsen (Gate, 1988; RSC and world tour, 1994)

3245: