DRAMATIS PERSONAE

& OTHER WRITINGS 

by Stewart Parker

eds. Gerald Dawe, Maria Johnston & Clare Wallace
ISBN 80-7308-241-3 (paperback). 120pp.
Publication date: October 2008
Price: € 12.00 (not including postage)

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Stewart Parker ranks among Ireland’s most innovative dramatists and yet as the twentieth anniversary of his death approaches, critical engagement with his work has still much ground to cover. With the exception of The Actress and the Bishop (1976) and Kingdom Come (1977), Stewart Parker’s theatre plays have remained in print with Methuen. This is the only material that is currently widely available to scholars, students and readers. However, Parker’s work extends well beyond this known core including numerous journalistic writings, literary criticism, radio and television plays.

In honour of the twentieth anniversary of Stewart Parker’s death, Litteraria Pragensia Books is proud to announce the publication of a two volume set of Parker’s TV plays and journalistic writings with critical introductions. Both volumes provide unique and long overdue perspectives on Parker’s work in an accessible format aimed to extend critical acknowledgement of Parker’s status as one of the most versatile and engaging writers to emerge in Northern Ireland in the 1970s and 1980s.

STEWART PARKER: DRAMATIS PERSONAE & OTHER WRITINGS introduced by Gerald Dawe (TCD) is devoted to Parker’s literary journalism and criticism. Contents include ‘Dramatis Personae’ (Parker’s John Malone Memorial Lecture); a selection of Parker’s articles from The Irish Times, The Belfast News Letter, Honest Ulsterman, Fortnight, The Evening Standard, Canadian Journal of Irish Studies, Irish University Review; and the introductions Parker wrote for Lost Belongings, his ‘three plays for Ireland’ and Sam Thompson’s Over the Bridge. Postscript by Clare Wallace.

James Stewart Parker (20 October 1941 – 2 November 1988) was a Northern Irish poet and playwright. His plays include Spokesong (1975), a musical Kingdom Come (1977), Catchpenny Twist (1977), Nightshade (1979), Pratt’s Fall(1981), Northern Star (1984), Heavenly Bodies (1986) and Pentecost (1987).