Voices from the balcony: power and resistance in Charabanc Theatre Company’s Somewhere over the Balcony

Isis Ribeiro  Berger; Beatriz Kopschitz  Bastos

doi:10.17851/1982-0739.31.2.107-123

Autores

Isis Berger Universidade Estadual do Oeste do Paraná (UNIOESTE) https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0259-3706
Beatriz Kopschitz Bastos Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina (UFSC) https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7367-0510

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.17851/1982-0739.31.2.107-123

Palavras-chave:

Peça norte-irlandesa, Mulheres, Território, Poder, Resistência

Resumo

This article offers an interdisciplinary analysis of the Irish play Somewhere over the Balcony, by Charabanc Theatre Company, based on the concepts of territory, power and resistance. The play depicts experiences of Catholic women residing in a marginalized housing complex of Belfast, amid the political and social conflicts of the period known as the Troubles. Based on close reading methodology, the paper seeks to examine the role of the balconies in the play as territories where the characters exercise (micro)power and resistance in a male-dominated society, as well as to interpret how some of the songs embedded in the plot contribute to this dynamic. The study concludes that the play Somewhere over the Balcony offers insights into the complexity of the power relations experienced by the characters, depicting how ordinary people, especially women, can resist and exercise power under the social conditions in which they live.

Downloads

Os dados de download ainda não estão disponíveis.

Biografia do Autor

Isis Berger, Universidade Estadual do Oeste do Paraná (UNIOESTE)

Professora Associada da UNIOESTE - Campus Foz do Iguaçu. Doutora em Linguística pela UFSC, na linha de pesquisa em Política Linguística. Mestre em Letras: Linguagem e Sociedade pela Unioeste - Cascavel; Licenciada e Bacharel em Letras Português-Inglês pela Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro. Docente da área de língua inglesa do Curso de Letras (Graduação) e Professora de Políticas Linguísticas do Programa de Pós-Graduação Sociedade, Cultura e Fronteiras. Coordenadora Institucional do Programa Paraná Fala Inglês, no âmbito da UNIOESTE. Membro do Comitê Gestor do Programa Paraná Fala Idiomas. Membro da Cátedra Unesco Políticas Linguísticas para o multilinguismo desde 2018 (Coordenadora Institucional no âmbito da Unioeste). Temas de pesquisa: Políticas Linguísticas; gestão do multi/plurilinguismo em contextos de pluralidade linguística e de fronteira; atitudes linguísticas; formação de professores de línguas.
Beatriz Kopschitz Bastos, Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina (UFSC)

Permanent Member of the Postgraduate Programme in English at the Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina (UFSC). She holds an MA in English from Northwestern University and a Ph.D. in Linguistic and Literary Studies in English from the Universidade de São Paulo (USP). She carried out two post-doctoral research projects at UFSC – with research at Trinity College Dublin and the Irish Film Institute. She was a Moore Institute Visiting Fellow at the University of Galway and a Visiting Fellow at the Humanities Institute at University College Dublin. She is the Vice Coordinator of Núcleo de Estudos Irlandeses (NEI), aside from serving as an executive member of IASIL (The International Association for the Study of Irish Literatures). In 2023, she was a recipient of Ireland’s Presidential Distinguished Service Award in the category of Arts, Culture and Sports.

Referências

BASTOS, Beatriz Kopschitz Xavier. Women in Irish Theatre: The Charabanc Theatre Company and Marie Jones. ABEI Journal, v. 9, p. 79-84, 2007. Available at: https://revistas.usp.br/abei/article/view/179419. Accessed on: 10 June 2025.

BASTOS, Beatriz Kopschitz X.; O’SHEA, José Roberto (org.). Ilha do Desterro: Contemporary Irish Theatre, Florianópolis, n. 58, 2010.

BRITANNICA EDITORS. Punch. Encyclopaedia Britannica, 4 out. 2024. Available at: https://www.britannica.com/topic/Punch-British-periodical. Accessed on: 18 May 2026.

COFFEY, Fiona Coleman. Political Acts: Women in Northern Irish Theatre, 1921-2012. Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press, 2016.

DICENZO, Maria R. Charabanc Theatre Company: Placing Women Center-Stage in Northern Ireland. Theatre Journal, Baltimore, v. 45, n. 2, p. 175-184, May 1993. Available at: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3208921. Accessed on: 10 June 2025.

FALVEY, Deirdre. ‘Balcony’ back on stage after 20 years. Irish Times, 3 Nov. 2007. Available at: https://www.irishtimes.com/news/balcony-back-on-stage-after-20-years-1.978933. Accessed on: 10 June 2025.

FERRITER, Diarmaid. The Transformation of Ireland: 1900-2000. London: Profile Books, 2004.

FOLEY, Imelda. The Girls in the Big Picture: Gender in Contemporary Ulster Theatre. Belfast: The Blackstaff Press, 2003.

FOUCAULT, Michel. História da Sexualidade I: a vontade de saber. 14. ed. Rio de Janeiro: Edições Graal, 1988.

HARRIS, Claudia. Introduction. In: HARRIS, Claudia (ed.). Four Plays by The Charabanc Theatre Company: Inventing Women’s World. Dublin: Colin Smythe, 2006. p. ix – li.

IRISH PLAYOGRAPHY. Somewhere over the Balcony. Available at: https://irishplayography.com/play/somewhere-over-the-balcony. Accessed on: 18 May 2026.

JONES, Marie. Somewhere Over Balcony. In: HARRIS, Claudia (ed.). Four Plays by The Charabanc Theatre Company: Inventing Women’s World. Dublin: Colin Smythe, 2006. p. 181-224.

LEE, J. J. Ireland 1912-1985: Politics and Society. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1989.

LOWNE, Cathy. The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. Encyclopaedia Britannica, 21 Nov. 2025. Available at: https://www.britannica.com/topic/The-Wonderful-Wizard-of-Oz. Accessed on: 18 May 2026.

MORIARTY, Gerry. Internment explained: When was it introduced and why? The Irish Times, Dublin, 9 Aug. 2019. Available at: https://www.irishtimes.com/news/politics/internment-explained-when-was-it-introduced-and-why-1.3981598. Accessed on: 7 July 2025.

OHRVIK, Ane. What is close reading? An exploration of a methodology. Rethinking History, v. 28, n. 2, p. 238-260, 2024. DOI: 10.1080/13642529.2024.2345001. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1080/13642529.2024.2345001. Accessed on: 3 July 2025.

OJRZYŃSKA, Katarzyna. Defying Maintenance Mimesis: The Case of Somewhere over the Balcony by Charabanc Theatre Company. Text Matters, v. 8, n. 8, p. 137-150, 2018.

PETERSEN, Lily. Life and Death in Divis Flats: The Enduring Symbolism of a 1960s Belfast Housing Project. 2023. Available at: https://posc284.posc.sites.carleton.edu/uncategorized/life-and-death-in-divis-flats-the-enduring-symbolism-of-a-1960s-belfast-housing-project/. Accessed on: 12 Apr. 2025.

PUNCH Magazine. The British Lion and the Irish Monkey. Filename: Ireland-Cartoons-Punch-1848.04.08.147.tif. Available at: https://magazine.punch.co.uk/image?&_bqG=0&_bqH=eJwLciqpMnJ3djcMScosNQrPMIn3LIusKPYziPC1MjSyMjQwAGEg6RnvEuxsm1mUmpOYl6Kdm5.XnVqpBhaMd_RzsS0BskODXYPiPV1sQ0EasryyMk2DkvJyPNPV4h2dQ2xLi4uCUxOLkjPU3EGK1JxBJADM0ydg&GI_ID=. Accessed on: 18 May 2026.

RAFFESTIN, Claude. Por uma Geografia do Poder. São Paulo: Editora Ática, 1993.

ROY, Megan Deirdre. Divis Flats: The Social and Political Implications of a Modern Housing Project in Belfast, Northern Ireland, 1968–1998. Iowa Historical Review, Iowa City, v. 1, n. 1, p. 1-44, 2007.

SOMEWHERE OVER THE BALCONY, Programme. Extraordinary Women. Linen Hall Library. Available at: https://extraordinarywomenni.com/collections/archives/item/somewhere-over-the-balcony-programme. Accessed on: 23 May 2026.

WINTER, Brenda. Charabanc, Cultural Capital and the Men of Recognised Credit. Ilha do Desterro: A Journal of English Language, Literatures in English and Cultural Studies, Florianópolis, n. 58, p. 439-458, 2010.