In this fascinating reappraisal of the non-literary drama of the late 19th - early 20th century, Christopher Fitz-Simon discloses a unique world of plays, players and producers in metropolitan theatres in Ireland and other countries where Ireland was viewed as a source of extraordinary topics at once contemporary and comfortably remote.
CHRISTOPHER FITZ-SIMON is a former Artistic Director of the Lyric Theatre, Belfast, the Irish Theatre Company and the Abbey Theatre, Dublin.
Among his books are THE BOYS, a biography of the Dublin Gate Theatre’s Hilton Edwards and Micheál MacLíammóir - ‹A really wonderful book› (Bruce Arnold, Irish Independent); ‹Beautifully written, diligently researched, sometimes sad, often hilarious› (Keith Baxter, Daily Telegraph); ‹By far the most wideranging and atmospheric description of Dublin’s wartime theatre› (Clair Wills in That Neutral Island); and ELEVEN HOUSES, a memoir of the 1940s - ‹Christopher Fitz-Simon’s wry and dispassionate approach keeps the narrative bracing› (Patricia Craig, Times Literary Supplement); ‹The sense of total recall is astonishing…it is painfully funny› (Roy Foster, Irish Times).