We are always updating this page so if you want to feature here please send news of your productions and all O'Casey projects to info@seanocasey.co.uk
News about forthcoming productions of Sean O'Casey's plays, current publications and interviews
Faber Finds - Sean O'casey Autobiographies
Sean O'Casey's six-part Autobiographies, originally published between 1939 and 1955, is an eloquently comprehensive self-portrait of an artist's life and times, unsurpassed in literature. Volumes 1-3 are available now in Finds
Click here for further information
BBC Radio 3 - The Plough and the Stars
The Plough and the Stars is the second in a three-part series of classic plays chosen for Drama on 3 by the playwright Kwame Kwei-Armah. Kwame also introduces this new production of the play.
NORA ..... Elaine Cassidy JACK ..... Padraic Delaney BESSIE ..... Gabrielle Reidy FLUTHER ..... Finbar Lynch PETER ..... Stephen Hogan THE COVEY ..... Jonathan Forbes MRS GOGAN ..... Fiona Clarke MOLLSER ..... Rebecca Gleeson ROSIE ..... Jane McGrath CAPT BRENNAN ..... Matthew McNulty LIEUT. LANGAN ..... Sam Smith Musical Director ..... Conrad Nelson
Directed by Nadia Molinari.
Broadcast 8.30pm Sunday, 4 December 2011
Available on BBC iPlayer here
National Theatre Platforms - Juno and the Paycock
Saturday 3 December - 10.30am
Shivaun O'Casey and Ciaran Hinds at the opening night of Juno and the Paycock at the Abbey Theatre Dublin 2011.
Photograph by Keiran Harnett.
O'Casey Rediscovered
Playwright Frank McGuinness and Abbey Theatre archivist Mairead Delaney join Shivaun O’Casey to discuss her father’s life and work.
Nick Lee,
Sophie Robinson and Tom Vaughan-Lawlor from the Juno and the Paycock company read from the other plays in O’Casey’s 1920s trilogy, The Shadow of a Gunman and The Plough and the Stars.
Chaired by James Naughtie.
Tickets: £6 (£5 concessions)
Running time: 90 mins
Click here for more information
Monday 5 December - 6.00pm
Shivaun O'Casey
With the production of one of her father’s greatest plays in the repertoire, Sean O’Casey’s daughter talks to the Abbey Theatre's Lisa Farrelly.
Tickets: £4 (£3 concessions)
Running time: 45 mins
Click here for further information
Thursday 15 December - 3.00pm
In Conversation with Sinéad Cusack & Ciarán Hinds
Sinéad Cusack and Ciarán Hinds talk to Al Senter about their careers, and playing Juno and Jack Boyle in Juno and the Paycock, and answer questions from the audience
Tickets: £5 (£4 concessions)
Running time: 1 hr
Click here for further information
The Shadow of O’Casey
Saturday 22nd October
Sean O'Casey Community Centre,
St Mary's Road, East Wall. 3pm
Contact: eastwallhistory@gmail.com
Playwright Sean O’Casey is East Wall's most famous resident. His work is internationally acclaimed. Often controversial when first produced, his plays are noted for the depiction of Dublin’s working class conditions and the political issues of the day. This realism was a result of O’Casey's own experiences – raised in a city with poverty worse than Calcutta, he witnessed the 1913 Lockout and helped form the Irish Citizens Army, interacted with James Connolly, Countess Markievicz, WB Yeats and others, and grew disillusioned after the 1916 Rising.
We are delighted to host this new examination of our most famous resident. The emphasis will be on the historical context of O'Casey - the times he lived in, the social conditions, the momentous events and the political forces and personalities that influenced his work. An impressive panel of prominent speakers has agreed to participate in the event,which we hope will attract interest from beyond the local community.
Panel will include Brian Hanley, (Department of History, St. Patrick's College), Padraig Yeates (Author of Lockout: Dublin 1913 and the forthcoming Dublin 1914-1918: a City at War), Michael Mac Piarais (author of Writing Dublin's Working Class), Paul O'Brien (author of forthcoming biography of Sean O’Casey).
Juno and the Paycock
As part of the 2011 Ulster Bank Dublin Theatre Festival the Abbey Theatre in a co-production with the National Theatre of Great Britain is presenting Juno and the Paycock by Sean O’Casey.
In this, the second part of O’Casey’s great Dublin Trilogy, the ambitions of a tenement family are set against the political and social events which conspire to keep them in their place. A very human tragedy of ambition, folly and loss.
Directed by Howard Davies and designed by Irish designer Bob Crowley this production will star Sinéad Cusack and Ciarán Hinds. After its run on the Abbey stage, it will transfer to the National Theatre.
Abbey Theatre:
Thursday 29 September – Saturday 5 November 2011
(Previews Wednesday 21 September – Wednesday 28 September)
Lyttelton (National Theatre):
Friday 11 November - 26 February 2012
Mealy's Auction, Dublin - July 19, 2011
Lot 487 - A programme for the first production of 'The Plough and the Stars,' week commencing Feb. 9th, 1926, 4pp. in the traditional Abbey Theatre grey wrappers, signed by O'Casey and dated 12/2/26, (i.e. Friday of first week's run). Staple rusted, else a good copy.
O'Casey's masterpiece, featuring Fluther Good, the Young Covey, Bessie Burgess, Rosie Redmond, Comdt. Jack Clitheroe and his wife Nora, etc. The cast included F.J. Mc Cormick, Shelah Richards, Barry Fitzgerald, Maureen Delany, Ria Mooney and others of the Abbey greats.
Sold for €900.
Announcement
We are very sorry to hear the sad news about Breon
O'Casey. Our thoughts and sympathy are with his wife and family and
Shivaun. Celebrations of Breon O'Casey's life and artistic achievements
can be seen in articles about his life:
The Guardian
The Independent
The Irish Times
The Daily Telegraph
Archived News Items
