The Genocide and the Rising: Drama withstanding the past

Abstract

This essay proposes a comparative analysis of the plays Exile in the cradle (2003), by Lorne Shirinian, which dramatizes the Armenian genocide (1915), and The Patriot Game (1991), by Tom Murphy, which revives the Irish insurrection known as Easter Rising (1916), focusing on their female characters, who did not experience those events but still face their aftermath. When compared, besides the consideration about women and how they have been excluded from the traditional accounts, both texts reveal a dialogue with respect to resistance, national liberation and its implications for future generations. In this sense, revisionism may be also a form of overcoming unfortunate components and adjusting the understanding of the past.