Performing the Body in Irish Theatrecharts a performance tradition that lives alongside a literary legacy and offers a highly original and contemporary analysis of Irish theater. Productions of plays by renowned Irish playwrights Friel, MacIntyre and others are investigated to highlight the staged body, issues of representation, transformation and recovery of tradition. Each chapter focuses on performance and identity, postcolonialism and gender, to interrogate the chosen texts as performance, rather than primarily dramatic texts, and the book's conclusion addresses the performance of the body in recent Irish productions.