Remembering Easter 1916

Sligo Drama takes to the Hawk’s Well stage this Spring, turning the spotlight on Seán O’ Casey’s much loved “The Plough and the Stars”. Directed by Ursula Smullen, the cast includes Averyl Dooher, Barry Deignan, Gerry Ryan, Siobhán Dooney, Máire Hynes, Ultan Burke, Muireann Tóibin, Róisin Kilcoyne, Vinnie Holland, Kevin Boyle and welcomes young actors Dermot Ryan and Elaine Burke to the stage in their first Drama Circle show.

The Plough and the Stars is named after the banner of the Irish Citizen Army, of which Seán O’ Casey was a member for a while. The story is set in the Dublin tenements in the year 1916. It centres on a young married couple called Jack and Nora Clitheroe. Jack is a member of the Irish Citizen Army. Nora is ambitious to move out of the tenements and to prevent her husband from involving himself further in politics. The action of the play concerns the events of Easter Week and their repercussions on Dublin tenement dwellers, who represent a cross section of political and religious opinion.

“The Plough and the Stars”, with its unsympathetic treatment of the participants in the Easter Rebellion, touched off a riot in the theatre when first performed in 1926, and after this event O’ Casey left Ireland for England, never to return. The play was made into a film in 1936, directed by the legendary John Ford. It starred Barbara Stanwyck as Nora Clitheroe and Preston Foster as Jack, with Barry Fitzgerald as Fluther Good.

See “The Plough and the Stars” at the Hawk’s Well Theatre from Thursday 26th – Saturday 28th April, nightly at 8pm. Tickets €15/€13 are now on sale at the box office or by telephoning 071-9161526 / 071 9161518.

from The Scene, April 27th, 2007