The Abbey Theatre and RTÉ bring a 50th anniversary production of Seán O'Casey's 'The Plough and the Stars' to television.
The Seán O'Casey four act play 'The Plough and the Stars' was first performed at the Abbey Theatre on 8 February 1926. The story unfolds during the week of the 1916 Easter Rising and the impact on the dwellers of a Dublin tenement.
The play opens in the home of Jack and Nora Clitheroe. Mrs Gogan, played by Angela Newman, takes delivery of a parcel from Arnotts department store. Mrs Gogan's curiosity gets the better of her and she opens the parcel. It contains a hat for Nora Clitheroe. Fluther Good played by Cyril Cusack, is also present. Mrs Gogan begins to gossip about the Clitheroes, describing Nora as having pretensions of grandeur, believing herself to be above the tenement dwellers.
Such notions of upperosity she is getting.
Fluther Good comes to her defence, describing Nora Clitheroe as a pretty girl but Mrs Gogan is having none of his politeness.
Speaking about the production in the RTÉ Guide, Michael Garvey who directed for television, wrote,
Few people would omit Seán O'Casey's 'The Plough and the Stars' from their list of the five most important Irish plays ever written.
'The Plough And The Stars' was broadcast on 10 January 1977. The production was directed by Tomás Mac Anna from the Abbey Theatre and Michael Garvey from RTÉ.
