Since its creation in 1980 by actor Stephen Rea ( The Crying Game ) and playwright Brian Friel ( Translation, Dancing at Lughnasa ), Northern Ireland's Field Day Theatre Company has brought challenging drama to the entire island, "from Coleraine to Kerry." With the addition to the board of directors of poets and critics such as Tom Paulin, Seamus Heaney, and Seamus Deane, Field Day ventured into the realm of the more explicitly political with a controversial pamphlet series. Acting Between the Lines is a fascinating study of one of the most important developments in contemporary Irish culture. "Thorough and evocative."-- Choice "A welcome and well-written study of the individuals and forces which gave life to the Field Day in its first five years."-- Times Literary Supplement "An extremely well-researched and readable account of the first four years of the company's existence."-- The Irish Times "A fascinating critique of the attempt to create a `fifth province' of the imagination...An excellent read for those interested in placing language at the centre of their artistic and `national' agenda."-- Theatre Scotland Acting Between the Lines is the first full-length study of Northern Ireland's Field Day Theatre Company. Marilynn J. Richtarik is a Killam Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the Department of English, University of British Columbia.