Mary Trotter, associate professor of theatre and drama at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, will present her lecture “A Riot about Representation: The Women of Easter 1916 and the Plough and the Stars Riots of 1926,” from 12:30 to 1:45 p.m. Sept. 13 in 331 Social Sciences & Business Building at UMSL.(Photo by Mary Trotter)

When Sean O’Casey’s play “The Plough and the Stars” debuted in Dublin in 1926, many women involved in the struggle for Irish independence refused to sit quietly through the performance. They loudly and violently protested the play in the theater.

Mary Trotter, associate professor of theatre and drama at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, will discuss the women’s outrage to the play in her lecture “A Riot about Representation: The Women of Easter 1916 and the Plough and the Stars Riots of 1926” from 12:30 to 1:45 p.m. Sept. 13 in 331 Social Sciences & Business Building at the University of Missouri–St. Louis.

In part, the women were upset by the play’s interpretation of the 1916 Easter Rising, which the play is set against. They were also angered at the play’s erasure of women’s role in the Irish revolution.

Trotter’s lecture will explore some of the historical, political and social factors that led the female Irish nationalist leaders to riot in the theater.

In addition to being an associate professor she is also director of UW-Madison’s Celtic Studies Program and vice president of the American Conference for Irish Studies.

The lecture is free and open to the public, and sponsored by UMSL, the Smurfit-Stone Endowed Professorship in Irish Studies at UMSL and International Studies and Programs at UMSL.