Reclaiming Personal Histories Through Performance

This chapter demonstrates how theatre and performance practice from the 2010s echoed an emerging tendency across Irish society to present, expose, and witness history in the aftermath of a series of scandals that emerged in Ireland at the turn of the twentieth century. Considering how moments of crisis and change often crystalise around individuals, this chapter explores how the form and function of ANU Productions’ Monto Cycle (2010–2014) moments of personal crisis and trauma are connected to moments of national crisis. This chapter analyses how, through the Monto Cycle, women's hidden histories have been explored, contextualised, commemorated, and legitimised. Using immersive and site-specific performance structures, ANU Production bring their audiences into close encounters with these stories and lived experiences, and debunk the grand narrative of Irish nationhood as being led by Christian compassion.