Productive Transfers: Scottish, Welsh, and Northern Irish Drama Across Borders

Abstract The article traces the production paths of three plays by Scottish, Welsh, and Northern Irish playwrights with a view on their specific reception in different cultural contexts. David Greig’s Dunsinane (2010), Gary Owen’s Iphigenia in Splott (2015), and David Ireland’s Cyprus Avenue (2016) all explore the theme of connections, cultural transfer, and identity translation in social and political environments which are composed of their Indigenous cultures and the strong presence of the British idiom. The protagonists of these plays navigate linguistic and cultural landscapes shaped by the legacy of colonial domination and by the resurgence of local ethnicities. All three plays depict the search for a renewed identity in the period of devolution and cultural diversity. It is the aim of this article to analyse the successful transfers across borders of cultural environments which these plays perform, as they articulate “local” identities for the sake of home and away audiences.