Victor Merriman

Victor Merriman is Professor of Critical Performance Studies at Edge Hill University. He is Director of the Performance and Civic Futures Research Group (2013-), and a founder member of One Hour Theatre Company (2016-), and a member of Liverpool Irish Literary Theatre. He is the author of two books on theatre, culture, society and the state: Because We Are Poor: Irish Theatre in the 1990s (Carysfort Press, 2011), and Austerity and the Public Role of Drama: Performing Lives-in-Common (Palgrave Macmillan, 2019). He was appointed a member of An Chomhairle Ealaion/The Arts Council of Ireland (1993-1998), by Ireland’s first Minister of Arts, Culture and Gaeltacht, Michael D Higgins, and chaired the Review of Theatre in Ireland (1995-6). He is a member of international advisory boards of the British Association for Irish Studies, Perspectives in the Arts and Humanities Asia (https://journals.ateneo.edu/index.php/apah) and Unitas (http://unitasust.net/). His first published academic article was on Dermot Bolger’s ground-breaking play, The Lament for Arthur Cleary.