"Modern Irish Drama" reprints the complete texts of twelve plays by the major Irish playwrights - W.B.Yeats, Lady Gregory, J.M.Synge, Bernard Shaw, Sean O'Casey, Brendan Behan, Samuel Beckett and Brian Friel. The texts are annotated with explanatory notes on Anglo-Irish usage, place names, historical figures and literary allusions. The "Backgrounds and Criticism " section contains almost 50 texts relevant to each of the 12 plays represented. Included are prefaces by authors, reports by spectators on the original productions, memoirs concerning playwrights and performances, and recent critical assessments by British, American and Irish scholars. From its collection of documents relevant to the origin of the Irish Literary Revival in the midst of Ireland's republican revolution to the recent formation of the Field Day Company in Northern Ireland, "Modern Irish Drama" charts the rise, development and present state of one of the most powerful national dramas of the 20th century.