The Celtic Tiger, Inward-Migration and the Peace Process (1994–2008)

Abstract

The mid-1990s-late 2000s saw an explosion of fragmentation and experimentation in theatrical form with the economic transformation of Ireland during this Celtic Tiger period of financial growth, low unemployment and drastically improved Debt/GDP ratio. Unprecedented inward-migration and the establishment of a peace process in Northern Ireland allowed a greater diversity of theatrical work to be created and circulated globally. The dramatic text was decentralised with movement, dance and scenography increasingly taking centre stage and site-specific and/or site-responsive work developed. But the figure of the Irish playwright as globalised phenomenon and key reference point for Irish theatre was also rejuvenated through key successes while Druid Theatre Company revitalised the legacy of J. M. Synge as an early twentieth-century Irish master with their globally successful phenomenon DruidSynge.