Seán O'Casey (1880–1964)
Author of Three Plays: Juno and the Paycock, The Shadow of a Gunman, The Plough and the Stars
About the Author
Image credit: Courtesy of the NYPL Digital Gallery (image use requires permission from the New York Public Library)
Series
Works by Seán O'Casey
Three Plays: Juno and the Paycock, The Shadow of a Gunman, The Plough and the Stars (1957) 826 copies
Autobiographies I: I Knock at the Door, Pictures in the Hallway, and Drums Under the Windows (1963) 58 copies
Autobiographies II: Inishfallen, Fare Thee Well, Rose and Crown, Sunset and Evening Star Star (1963) 51 copies
Sean O'Casey: Plays 2: The Shadow of a Gunman, The Plough and the Stars, The Silver Tassie, Purple Dust, Hall of… (1998) 24 copies
Collected Plays, Volume I: Juno and the Paycock, The Shadow of a Gunman, The Plough and the Stars, A Pound on Demand,… (1949) 9 copies
The End of the Beginning 3 copies
Six Plays - Sean O'Casey - The Franklin Library - Kenneth Francis Dewey Illustrations - Limited Edition (1980) 3 copies
Stücke 1 Dubliner Triologie: Der Rebell, der keiner war. Juno und der Pfau. Der Pflug und die Sterne. (1999) 2 copies
Théâtre, tome 3 : L'Ombre d'un franc-tireur - Les Tambours du père Ned - Le Dispensaire (1991) 2 copies
The Flying Wasp 2 copies
Sean O'Casey: Plays 1 1 copy
Largely Literary Designs: The World's a Stage and Most of Us Are Desperately Unrehearsed (1998) 1 copy
Drámák 1 copy
Three Plays By Sean o'Casey 1 copy
Sean O'Casey : plays 1 copy
The Sean O'Casey Reader 1 copy
A Pound on Demand: A Play 1 copy
Bedtime Story 1 copy
Sağlık Yurdu 1 copy
The Job 1 copy
Teatro 1 copy
Das Sean O'Casey Lesebuch 1 copy
Associated Works
Playwrights on Playwriting: The Meaning and Making of Modern Drama from Ibsen to Ionesco (1960) — Contributor — 110 copies
Cavalcade of comedy; 21 brilliant comedies from Jonson and Wycherley to Thurber and Coward (1953) — Contributor — 97 copies
Tagged
Common Knowledge
- Canonical name
- O'Casey, Seán
- Legal name
- Casey, John (birth)
- Other names
- Ó Cathasaigh, Seán
- Birthdate
- 1880-03-30
- Date of death
- 1964-09-18
- Burial location
- Golders Green Crematorium, London, England, UK
- Gender
- male
- Nationality
- Ireland
- Birthplace
- Dublin, Ireland
- Place of death
- Torquay, Devon, England, UK
- Occupations
- playwright
dramatist
memoirist - Relationships
- O'Casey, Eileen (wife)
- Organizations
- Irish Citizen Army
- Awards and honors
- Hawthornden Prize (1927)
Members
Reviews
I have a lot more context for this play now, my second time through it, and also a lot to say about bloodlust and sacrifice and being a decent person, but if I indulged, I'd be ranting through spoilers and possibly for hours, so maybe now is not the time.
Read in my hardcover of "Five Great Modern Irish Plays" & listened to a full cast audio production on YouTube (introduced by the author).
This play is set in 1922 Dublin during the tail end of the Irish War of Independence and is about the Boyle family. While 'Captain' Jack Boyle, the father, is something of a buffoon, this is by no means a comedy. Juno Boyle, the mother, is struggling to keep the family going while her husband, unemployed, drinks with his 'butty' Joxer; the son Johnny, who lost an arm in the Easter Rising of 1916, is on the verge of a nervous breakdown; and the daughter Mary has thrown over her young man Jerry Devine. In case you were wondering, 'paycock' is the word "peacock" pronounced with an Irish accent.
I found this play to be tragic in a Shakespearean sense --while it looks like things might improve for the family early on, in the end everything is much much worse. I wonder if O'Casey was trying to say that independent Ireland ended up worse off than they had been before... .… (more)
This play is set in 1922 Dublin during the tail end of the Irish War of Independence and is about the Boyle family. While 'Captain' Jack Boyle, the father, is something of a buffoon, this is by no means a comedy. Juno Boyle, the mother, is struggling to keep the family going while her husband, unemployed, drinks with his 'butty' Joxer; the son Johnny, who lost an arm in the Easter Rising of 1916, is on the verge of a nervous breakdown; and the daughter Mary has thrown over her young man Jerry Devine. In case you were wondering, 'paycock' is the word "peacock" pronounced with an Irish accent.
I found this play to be tragic in a Shakespearean sense --
Parts of these plays could almost be an Irish version of The Honeymooners– if so much more weren't at stake, and people weren't run-down and dying.
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Awards
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Statistics
- Works
- 94
- Also by
- 16
- Members
- 2,087
- Popularity
- #12,319
- Rating
- 3.5
- Reviews
- 21
- ISBNs
- 115
- Languages
- 7
- Favorited
- 3
This play is set in 1922 Dublin during the tail end of the Irish War of Independence and is about the Boyle family. While 'Captain' Jack Boyle, the father, is something of a buffoon, this is by no means a comedy. Juno Boyle, the mother, is struggling to keep the family going while her husband, unemployed, drinks with his 'butty' Joxer; the son Johnny, who lost an arm in the Easter Rising of 1916, is on the verge of a nervous breakdown; and the daughter Mary has thrown over her young man Jerry Devine. In case you were wondering, 'paycock' is the word "peacock" pronounced with an Irish accent.
I found this play to be tragic in a Shakespearean sense --