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Rating: 
Summary: Highlights of Irish Theatre
Review: Sean O'Casey was something of an anomaly on the Irish literary scene in the early 20th Century. While his fellow artistes (extra e being intentional) were lofty in their ideals and flowery in their language, writing often in rhyme or blank verse, O'Casey was very much the man of the people. Yeates, Synge and Beckett were concerned with ideals, classical parallells, celtic revival and universality while O'Casey painted the life of the working classes.In that regard O'Casey holds a lot in common with Russian writers of the period, and with marxist treatments. But in the Holy Catholic Ireland of his day he was viewed with suspicion by the authorities and with contempt by the artistic aristocracy. So it is somewhat fitting that the three plays in this book have more to say about the period than most of the "great" contemporary Irish works of the day. Certainly they have become far more popular and remain accessible to many people both thorough professional and amateur productions. For me, O'Casey is at his best when he is in the tenament room with the ordinary people, and this is what makes Juno and the Paycock the most enjoyable of these plays. Layabout workshy men supported on the backs of strong hard women are as universal a theme you can get, but it is a theme made funny and poignant by O'Casey. The Plough and the Stars is a milestone portrayal of the events of the Easter Rising on the ordinary people of Dublin, for whom the events were a frightening irrelevance that pulled them out of their daily struggle with hunger into a greater struggle for freedom and nationality. This turning point is captured with sheer brilliance by O'Casey, but it is left up to the theater producer to maximise it, and I have seen good and really horrendous productions of this work. All three are excellent plays. Important works, not only in an Irish context, but giving voices to the disadvantaged in any society.
Rating:
Summary: Highlights of Irish Theatre
Review: Sean O'Casey was something of an anomaly on the Irish literary scene in the early 20th Century. While his fellow artistes (extra e being intentional) were lofty in their ideals and flowery in their language, writing often in rhyme or blank verse, O'Casey was very much the man of the people. Yeates, Synge and Beckett were concerned with ideals, classical parallells, celtic revival and universality while O'Casey painted the life of the working classes. In that regard O'Casey holds a lot in common with Russian writers of the period, and with marxist treatments. But in the Holy Catholic Ireland of his day he was viewed with suspicion by the authorities and with contempt by the artistic aristocracy. So it is somewhat fitting that the three plays in this book have more to say about the period than most of the "great" contemporary Irish works of the day. Certainly they have become far more popular and remain accessible to many people both thorough professional and amateur productions. For me, O'Casey is at his best when he is in the tenament room with the ordinary people, and this is what makes Juno and the Paycock the most enjoyable of these plays. Layabout workshy men supported on the backs of strong hard women are as universal a theme you can get, but it is a theme made funny and poignant by O'Casey. The Plough and the Stars is a milestone portrayal of the events of the Easter Rising on the ordinary people of Dublin, for whom the events were a frightening irrelevance that pulled them out of their daily struggle with hunger into a greater struggle for freedom and nationality. This turning point is captured with sheer brilliance by O'Casey, but it is left up to the theater producer to maximise it, and I have seen good and really horrendous productions of this work. All three are excellent plays. Important works, not only in an Irish context, but giving voices to the disadvantaged in any society.
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