This essay examines Tim Loane’s political comedies, Caught Red-Handed
and To Be Sure, and their critique of the Northern Irish peace process. As
“parodies of esteemâ€, both plays challenge the ultimate electoral victors
of the peace process (the Democratic Unionist Party and Sinn Féin) as well
as critiquing the cant, chicanery and cynicism that have characterised their
political rhetoric and the peace process as a whole. This essay argues that
Loane’s transformation of these comedic pantomime horses into Trojan
ones loaded with a ruthless polemical critique of our ruling political elites
is all the more important in the context of a self-censoring media that has
stifled dissent and debate by protecting the peace process from inconvenient
truths. From these close and contextual readings of Loane’s plays, wider
issues relating to the political efficacy of comedy and its canonical relegation
below ‘higher forms’ in Irish theatre historiography will also be considered.
