Seamus Finnegan

Seamus Finnegan

Seamus Finnegan in Mishkenot Shananim, Jerusalum 2012

Seamus Finnegan in Mishkenot Shananim, Jerusalum 2012
Born Seamus Finnegan
(1949-03-01) March 1, 1949
Belfast, Northern Ireland
Occupation Playwright, dramatist & lecturer
Years active 1978–present

Seamus Finnegan (born 1949) is a Northern Irish playwright. He lives in London, and was born in Belfast Northern Ireland on March 1, 1949.

Early life

Born in Belfast Northern Ireland, he is the son of Mary (née Magee) and Billy Finnegan, a bricklayer. He went to St Mary's Grammar School where he was taught by the Irish Christian Brothers. At the outbreak of 'the Troubles' in Northern Ireland,[1] he became a member of the Northern Ireland Civil Rights Movement and the People's Democracy (a left wing student group led by amongst others, Bernadette McAliskey née Devlin). In 1971 he went to Manchester to read English, Drama and Education where he graduated and qualified as a teacher. He later moved to London where he taught at the Jews' Free School from 1974-1978.

Career

Finnegan's first major play Act of Union was produced in 1980 at the Soho Poly Theatre[2] with the support of Bill Ash and of which Irving Wardle wrote in The Times: "It may seem a negative compliment to this extremely informative and well-written piece, but its main achievements are to have developed a highly theatrical pattern from dislocated fragments, and to have exposed some of the tangled loyalties and hatreds of the divided country without the smallest trace of sectarian bias". Soldiers, North and Mary's Men soon followed in the quartet of 'Troubles' plays.

In 1982, at the invitation of Kariel Gardosh, the Israeli Cultural Attaché in London, Finnegan's play James Joyce And The Israelites was performed at the First International Conference and Festival of Jewish Theater in Tel Aviv.[3] "An evening of undivided enjoyment... a non-Jewish play on a Jewish subject done with much understanding and sympathy" (Jerusalem Post).

In 1984, Tout, a play about informers in Northern Ireland was commissioned by the Royal Shakespeare Company and performed at the Barbican as part of the Thought Crimes At The Barbican season in memory of George Orwell and his 1984.

1986 saw the production of The War Trilogy which included The Spanish Play, The German Connection and subsequently for BBC Radio 3 The Cemetery of Europe. Of The German Connection, which opened at the Young Vic, Andrew Rissik wrote in The Independent: 'Seamus Finnegan's The German Connection is an outstanding new play whose theme is tellingly summarised in the line, "Betrayal can make monsters of people... Finnegan's writing cuts through the potential melodrama with heart-breaking perception and skill... his dialogue has an urgent workaday vigour..."

In the mid-nineties, Finnegan was writer in residence at Mishkenot Sha’ananim in Jerusalem, where he collaborated with Israeli dramatist Miriam Kainy[4] on Hypatia and began work on his book about Israeli playwrights, Dialogues In Exile, with the help and support of Dani Horovitz, another Israeli dramatist.

Since 1998, Finnegan has worked closely with Scottish theatre director and artist, Ken McClymont[5] on more than seven productions, most notably, Dead Faces Laugh, Disapora Jigs, Murder In Bridgport and Spinoza and with Madani Younis at the Bush Theatre in 2012 on The Star In The Cross, a play set in the Budapest ghetto and Jerusalem in 1944.

Finnegan's latest work is Lament For The Six Counties, scheduled for production in 2016 to coincide with the anniversary of the Easter Rising of 1916.

List of Plays

Radio, TV and Film

Books

References

  1. ↑ "Seamus Finnegan". Playography Ireland. Retrieved 27 April 2015.
  2. ↑ Chambers, Colin; Prior, Mike (1987). Playwrights' progress : patterns of postwar British drama. Oxford: Amber Lane Press. ISBN 0906399815.
  3. ↑ Ken Stein and Rich Walter. "First International Conference and Festival of Jewish Theater Convenes in Tel Aviv". Center for Israel Education. Retrieved 4 May 2015.
  4. ↑ "Miriam Kainy". Jewish Women's Archive. Retrieved 12 May 2015.
  5. ↑ "Ken McClymont's website". Ken McClymont - Theatre.
  6. ↑ "Act of Union". Playography Ireland. Retrieved 25 April 2015.
  7. 1 2 3 4 Finnegan, Seamus (1987). North ; also, Soldiers ; Act of union ; Mary's men : four plays (Original pbk. ed.). London: M. Boyars. ISBN 978-0714528700.
  8. 1 2 Finnegan, Seamus (1995). James Joyce and the Israelites; and, Dialogues in exile. Chur, Switzerland: Harwood Academic Publishers. ISBN 978-3718655496.
  9. ↑ "The Spanish Play". Playography Ireland. Retrieved 27 April 2015.
  10. 1 2 Finnegan, Seamus (1991). The cemetery of Europe: the Spanish play, the German connection, the Murphy girls: three plays (Original pbk. ed.). London: M. Boyars. ISBN 978-0714528953.
  11. 1 2 3 4 Finnegan, Seamus (1995). It's all blarney: four plays. Chur, Switzerland: Harwood Academic Publishers. ISBN 978-3718655557.
  12. ↑ "Seamus Finnegan". Doollee. Retrieved 27 April 2015.
  13. ↑ Finnegan, Seamus (1 Jul 2001). Dead Faces Laugh (Contemporary Theatre Review). Harwood Academic (Performing Arts). ISBN 9057551438.
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