Anne Devlin
Anne Devlin is a notable Irish playwright and writer, recognized for her contributions to literature and theater, particularly in the context of Northern Ireland's socio-political landscape. Born and raised in the Catholic community of Andersontown, West Belfast, Devlin was influenced by her father's socialist beliefs and the challenges of "the Troubles." After marrying in 1972, she embarked on her teaching career but shifted her focus to writing after moving to Freiburg, Germany, in 1976. Her debut collection, *The Way-Paver*, published in 1986, highlights her feminist perspective and addresses the complexities faced by women during tumultuous times.
Devlin's breakthrough came with her acclaimed play *Ourselves Alone*, which premiered in 1985 and received several prestigious awards, including the George Devine Award and the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize. Her work often centers on the lives of women navigating a male-dominated society, depicting their diverse experiences through interconnected characters. Besides *Ourselves Alone*, her influential plays include *After Easter*, and her radio and television works have reached wide audiences through the BBC. Through her engaging storytelling, Devlin skillfully explores themes of identity, resilience, and the nuanced roles women play in challenging circumstances.
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Subject Terms
Anne Devlin
Patriot
- Born: September 13, 1951
- Birthplace: Ireland
Biography
Anne Devlin spent her formative years in Andersontown, a Catholic community in West Belfast, the daughter of Paddy Devlin, a socialist politician. After marrying in 1972, she taught from 1974 until 1976 at Bushmills Comprehensive School. Her life took an important turn in 1976 when she and her husband relocated in Freiburg, Germany, when she began to write seriously. She contributed many stories to magazines and, in 1986, nine of them were collected and published in The Way-Paver. Most of these stories, written from a feminist perspective about what the Irish call “the Troubles,” brought considerable recognition to Devlin, who divorced her husband in 1983.
Devlin burst onto the theater scene in 1985 with the hugely successful production of Ourselves Alone, the title derived from the translation of Sinn Fein. A month after the play opened in Liverpool on October 24, 1985, it was brought to London and within the next eighteen months it had been produced in Dublin and in Washington, D. C. In 1986, it won the George Devine Award and the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize for the best play written by a woman and was nominated for two Lawrence Olivier Awards.
Meanwhile, Devlin married producer Chris Parr in 1986 and her only child, a son, was born in October of the same year. She now moved to Birmingham, England, where she taught at the University of Birmingham. Even before the production of Ourselves Alone, Devlin had, in 1985, won the prestigious Samuel Beckett Award for the best first play for television for A Woman Calling and The Long March.
In most of her writing, Devlin focuses on the plight of women in a male-dominated society when they are left alone to run their households because their men are out fighting. Devlin does not fall into the trap of making unwarranted generalizations about all women in such situations. Rather, she creates a group of interconnected female characters—Donna, Josie, and Frieda in Ourselves Alone—each of whom is emblematic of a specific role. In this case, Donna signifies the mother, Josie signifies the mistress, and Frieda signifies the working woman. Each faces similar problems, yet each remains an individual and, as such, copes with these problems in different ways. The balance that Devlin achieves by this skillful manipulation of her characters gives her plays a credence sometimes lacking in militantly feminist writing.
Devlin’s two most influential plays were Ourselves Alone and After Easter, which premiered in 1994 in Stratford-upon-Avon. Her radio and television plays were often repeated on the British Broadcasting Corporation and brought her message before large audiences.