Monological Drama to Reshape the Northern Irish Identity: A Night in November by Marie Jones

Abstract

In this contemporary one-man theatre play, Marie Jones's character, Kenneth McCallister, is prompted to break free from the prejudices in and against Northern Ireland. Indeed, the playwright aims at finding new ways to deconstruct the preconceived idea that there are two different identities in Northern Ireland closely linked to the division between two religious communities. Instead, she seeks connections, even with the Irish who migrated (the diasporic dimension, though, is not to be discussed within this paper). The author explores this possibility through the psychological evolution of a Northern Irish Protestant who comes to lack references in terms of identity. On stage, he recalls the events that launched him on a quest to redefine his identity, an identity in which his religious denomination is taken into account but is not the only community marker. Marie Jones eventually offers an insight into what being and feeling Irish means for someone who has always lived as a Protestant in Northern Ireland. Monologue and the notion of "frontiers" (be they social, political, geographical, historical or theatrical) that emerge only to be destroyed, are some of the theatrical devices she resorts to in order to voice her aim in this experimental play which ultimately proposes to reshape the contours of Northern Irish drama about the Troubles. (English) [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]