ABSTRACT
The 1998 Agreement proposed a plethora of important social and institutional changes in order to bring to an end the three and half decades of violence, euphemistically known as the Troubles. While it promised Northern Ireland ‘a truly historic opportunity for a new beginning’, it also addressed the need to consider the ‘tragedies of the past’. This chapter foregrounds the role of theatre not only in creating socio-political awareness of the complex issues that haunt the post-Agreement period but also in performing an ethics of hope that allows a reimagining of the current status quo. With its repeatedly suspended devolved Assembly, the contemporary political landscape in which these plays were produced is indeed reflective of the suspension that has characterised readings of post-Agreement Northern Ireland. Similar to Spallen’s play, Shibboleth makes visible the traumatising recurrence of Northern Ireland’s past in its post-Agreement present.
