Ephemeral Acts, Enduring Memories: HIV/AIDS and Cultural Memory in Contemporary Irish Theatre and Performance

This thesis investigates the cultural memory of the AIDS crisis in Ireland, with a particular focus on performance and visual cultures. It interrogates how the legacy of HIV/AIDS is articulated within a culture of “post-crisis” and explores the role of performance in mediating this legacy. Approaching HIV/AIDS through the lens of cultural memory, the thesis examines four Irish works that emerged in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic (2021–2025): Once Before I Go by Phillip McMahon (2021), How to Tell a Secret, directed by Anna Rodgers and Shaun Dunne (2022), PartyScene: Chemsex, Community and Crisis by Philip Connaughton and Phillip McMahon (2022), and the Irish HIV/AIDS Monument Embraced Loop (2023) designed by Anaise Franco and Michael R. DiCarlo. Through these case studies, the thesis analyses how Irish playwrights, choreographers, filmmakers, performers, and cultural institutions have engaged with the memory of HIV/AIDS. The study argues that these works resist closure, instead presenting memory as fluid, continually reshaped by the demands of the present. Rather than imposing a single, coherent account of Irish AIDS memory, the study emphasises its multiplicity and unevenness. The thesis positions Irish performance as a vital site through which the memory of HIV/AIDS is mediated, contested, and reimagined, inviting ongoing critical reflection on the histories of the epidemic as they intersect, unfold, and remain unresolved. In doing so, it contributes to a broader understanding of how Irish AIDS memory is simultaneously shaped by cultural specificities and entangled within global narratives of the virus.