The Censoring of The Ginger Man, London and Dublin 1959, or, The “Nipple Nuttiness” of J. P. Donleavy

Abstract

The production of J. P. Donleavy’s The Ginger Man in Dublin, 1959, is often considered one of the cause celebres of the Irish theatre: after three nights the play was cancelled following the intervention of clerical influence. Its reception was elevated to mythic status with the help of the author’s own account of its reception, What They Did in Dublin with The Ginger Man: a play (1961). However, the account of uncompromising integrity offered by Donleavy requires further analysis. This essay draws attention to the censorship of the play’s debut production in London by the Lord Camberlain’s Office to show a complex negotiation of social authority. This previously neglected comparison allows for a reconsideration of how reception was managed differently, through contrasting processes of censorship, in Britain and Ireland in the 1950s. Examination of the play’s reception in Dublin shows a more varied range of critical response allowed for in previous accounts, while the fact that The Ginger Man took as its subject sexual licence in Ireland is considered as key to its amplified resonance on the Irish stage.