Tom Murphy’s Alice Trilogy: Through the Looking-Glass of the London Critics
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.37389/abei.v9i0.3696Keywords:
Tom Murphy, Alice Trilogy, Portuguese translation.Abstract
Tom Murphy is generally considered to be one of Ireland’s two most important living playwrights. Although Alice Trilogy, which premiered in London at the Royal Court Theatre in November 2005, was his first new play in five years, it was awarded no more than a tepid reception by the London critics. The article begins by tracing intertextual links between Murphy’s trilogy and Lewis Carroll’s Through the Looking-Glass and what Alice found there (1872), arguing that an awareness of these links is particularly helpful in understanding the psychology of the angst-ridden central character of the play. A survey of nineteen reviews of the play published in the London press reveals that, for the majority
of the critics, the intertextuality between the two works was, urprisingly, not considered to be noteworthy. The article also makes passing reference to the first Brazilian production of Murphy’s play, a studio performance of an unpublished Portuguese translation, staged in São Paulo in December 2006.
