The pleading words of Nora Clitheroe have haunted me for almost thirty years: “Don’t leave me, Jack, don’t fling me from you now.”
Haunted me because of the jeers from the lads in the audience from the visiting schools as they mocked my dodgy Dublin accent and took great delight at our all-girl cast in the annual school play.
How I cursed Sean O’Casey. But that was then.
As part of its national and UK tour, the Abbey Theatre will stage a revived production of O’Casey’s tragic-comedy The Plough and the Stars at An Grianan Theatre, Letterkenny later this month.
Under the direction of Wayne Jordan, Associate Artist with the Abbey, we are told he will bring “the fresh perspective of a new generation to this iconic play”.
Set in the midst of the Easter Rising, The Plough and the Stars is the story of ordinary lives ripped apart in the idealism of the time.
A classic of the Abbey Theatre repertoire The Plough and the Stars is set in a tenement house, against the backdrop of the Easter Rising in 1916.
The Plough and the Stars is both an intimate play about the lives of ordinary people and an epic play about ideals and the birth of our nation.
Amidst the tumult of political upheaval, Jack and Nora Clitheroe are ‘like two turtle doves always billing and cooing’, much to the ridicule of their bustling neighbours.
But when Ireland calls, Jack must choose between love for his wife and duty to his country.
Heartbreaking, disturbing and very funny, The Plough and the Stars is a historic play that every generation needs to see.
It is the third play in Sean O’Casey’s trilogy of Dublin life during a period of revolution.
The Plough and the Stars at An Grianan Theatre 25 Sep, 26 Sep, 27 Sep, 28 Sep, 29 Sept.
Tel: Box Office : 074 91 20777
Tags:
