This story is set in the Dublin tenements in the year 1916. It centres on a young married couple, Jack and Nora Clitheroe, and portrays the destructive effects of the Easter Rebellion of 1916 with stark, but compassionate realism.
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. Jack learns that she has burned a letter which tells him that he has been promoted Commandant and he is to lead a reconnaissance attack on Dublin Castle. Jack is furious and leaves the house at once.
We get some insight into the particular quality and tragedy of tenement life through the various characters.
- The play was performed by The O’Casey Theater Company, presented by the Philadelphia Drama Guild and Annenberg Center in Philadelphia. After Philadelphia, it toured Belfast, Cork, Dublin, and Derry.
| Character: Jack Clitheroe |
| Playwright: Sean O’Casey |
| Director: Shivaun O’Casey |
| Additional Cast: Madeleine Potter, Des Keogh, Alan Mooney, Pauline Flanagan, Helen Ryan, Jarlath Conroy |
| Venue: Zellerbach Theatre, Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, US. |
| Status: Completed play |
