Performing Modernity: Culture and Experiment in the Irish Free State

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Elaine Sisson (Institute of Art, Design and Technology, Dublin, Ireland) Bruce McConachie (Professor, University of Pittsburgh, USA)

Performing Modernity

Name: Performing Modernity
Price: 170 AUD
Availability: OutOfStock
ISBN: 9781350258075

Culture and Experiment in the Irish Free State

Elaine Sisson (Institute of Art, Design and Technology, Dublin, Ireland), Bruce McConachie (Professor, University of Pittsburgh, USA), Claire Cochrane (University of Worcester, UK)

$170

Hardback

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English

Methuen Drama
22 January 2026

History of art & design styles: from c 1900 -; Performance art; Theatre Studies; British & Irish history

Series: Cultural Histories of Theatre and Performance

This book is an exploration of metropolitan bohemian and counter-cultural movements in theatre, design and popular culture in the Irish Free State.

Were there flappers in Ireland? Was there really a Cabaret Club in Dublin in 1926? Using photographs, theatre and costume designs, letters, newspaper accounts, novels and other historical sources, Performing Modernity offers a wholly new perspective on metropolitan life in the Irish Free State where people listen to jazz and go dancing, watch German Expressionist theatre, are interested in Soviet design, and attend pageants, cabarets and fancy dress balls.

The early years of Irish independence are often characterised as isolated and conservative as the country recovered from the effects of the Civil War. This book argues that there was also ambition and optimism among the citizens of the new State as they embraced the promise of modernity in theatre, film and popular culture during the 1920s and 1930s.

By: Elaine Sisson (Institute of Art Design and Technology Dublin Ireland)
Series edited by: Bruce McConachie (Professor University of Pittsburgh USA), Claire Cochrane (University of Worcester, UK)
Imprint: Methuen Drama
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions: Height: 238mm, Width: 154mm, Spine: 20mm
Weight: 580g
ISBN: 9781350258075
ISBN 10: 1350258075
Series: Cultural Histories of Theatre and Performance
Pages: 288
Publication Date: 22 January 2026
Audience: Professional and scholarly , Undergraduate
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Active

List of Illustrations Introduction 1. Experimental Theatre and the New State: The Dublin Drama League, the Peacock Theatre to the Beginnings of the Gate Theatre Studio (1919-1928) 2. Radicals and Cabarets: Toto Bannard Cogley’s Counter-cultural Networks (1924-1930) 3. Continental Stagecraft: Visual Style, Stage Design and Modernism 4. MacLiammóir as Costume Designer: Performing Sexual Identities at the Gate Theatre 5. Fashion, Performance and American Popular Culture (1927-1937) 6. Bright Young People: Fancy Dress Balls and Social Identity 7. Narrating the State: Spectacle and Nation-Building (1926-1936) Conclusion References Index

Elaine Sisson is Senior Lecturer in Visual Culture in the Faculty of Film, Art and Creative Technologies at the Institute of Art, Design and Technology, Dublin, Ireland. Her publications include Ireland, Design and Visual Culture: Negotiating Modernity 1922-1992, edited with L. King (2007) and Pearse’s Patriots: The Cult of Boyhood at St. Enda’s (2005).

Reviews for Performing Modernity: Culture and Experiment in the Irish Free State

Elaine Sisson has written a superb book about the cultural history of Ireland from independence to the ‘Emergency’ period. It will have a major effect on the study of Irish theatre by fully integrating sources such as costume and set design, by drawing on the influence of other forms of visual and popular culture including music and fashion, and by narrating a story that been neglected for far too long. It foregrounds the contributions of women, many of them never before properly written about, and it makes a vital contribution to the understanding of race and racism, social class, and many other previously neglected elements of the cultural history of early 20th-century Ireland. This is a book that I know I will be returning to many times in the future. * Patrick Lonergan, University of Galway, Ireland *