The Field is John B. Keane's fierce and tender study of the love a man can have for land and the ruthless lengths he will go to in order to obtain the object of his desire. It is dominated by the Bull McCabe, one of the most famous characters in Irish writing today. An Oscar-nominated adaptation of The Field proved highly successful and popular worldwide,and stared Richard Harris, John Hurt, Brenda Fricker and Tom Berenger.
The Field
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About the Author
John B. Keane, one of Ireland's most prolific and respected literary figures, died on 30 May 2002 at the age of 73, after a long and difficult battle with cancer. John B. was born in 1928 in Listowel, County Kerry and it was here that he spent his literary career, running a pub which provided him with inspiration for his characters and ideas.
His first play, Sive, was presented by the Listowel Drama Group and won the All-Ireland Drama Festival in 1959. It was followed by another success, Sharon's Grave, in 1960. The Field (1965) and Big Maggie (1969), are widely regarded as classics of the modern Irish stage and jewels in a crown which includes such popular hits as Many Young Men of Twenty, The Man from Clare, Moll, The Chastitute and The Year of the Hiker. His large canon of plays have been seen abroad in cities as far afield as Moscow and Los Angeles. Big Maggie ran on Broadway for over two months in 1982 and The Field was adapted into an Oscar-winning Hollywood film, starring Brenda Fricker and Richard Harris, in 1991.
But it was not just in his plays that John B. Keane managed to portray all aspects of humanity with both wit and truth. He also wrote many fine novels, including The Contractors, A High Meadow and Durango. Durango was adapted for the big screen, starring Brenda Fricker and Patrick Bergin. A writer of essays, short stories and letters, his humorous words live on in Celebrated Letters of John B. Keane, More Celebrated Letters, The Best of John B. Keane and The Short Stories of John B. Keane. In 1987 John B. Keane received a special award for his enduring place in Irish life and letters from the Sunday Independent/Irish Life. In that year he also won a Sunday Tribune Arts Award and in 1988 he was chosen as the recipient of the Irish-American Fund Award for Literature. In 1999 he was presented with a Gradam medal, the Abbey Theatre's highest award. He was a member of Aosdana and the recipient of honorary doctorates from Trinity College, Dublin, Limerick University and Marymount College, New York.
John B. Keane remains one of Mercier's best-loved and best-selling authors.
His first play, Sive, was presented by the Listowel Drama Group and won the All-Ireland Drama Festival in 1959. It was followed by another success, Sharon's Grave, in 1960. The Field (1965) and Big Maggie (1969), are widely regarded as classics of the modern Irish stage and jewels in a crown which includes such popular hits as Many Young Men of Twenty, The Man from Clare, Moll, The Chastitute and The Year of the Hiker. His large canon of plays have been seen abroad in cities as far afield as Moscow and Los Angeles. Big Maggie ran on Broadway for over two months in 1982 and The Field was adapted into an Oscar-winning Hollywood film, starring Brenda Fricker and Richard Harris, in 1991.
But it was not just in his plays that John B. Keane managed to portray all aspects of humanity with both wit and truth. He also wrote many fine novels, including The Contractors, A High Meadow and Durango. Durango was adapted for the big screen, starring Brenda Fricker and Patrick Bergin. A writer of essays, short stories and letters, his humorous words live on in Celebrated Letters of John B. Keane, More Celebrated Letters, The Best of John B. Keane and The Short Stories of John B. Keane. In 1987 John B. Keane received a special award for his enduring place in Irish life and letters from the Sunday Independent/Irish Life. In that year he also won a Sunday Tribune Arts Award and in 1988 he was chosen as the recipient of the Irish-American Fund Award for Literature. In 1999 he was presented with a Gradam medal, the Abbey Theatre's highest award. He was a member of Aosdana and the recipient of honorary doctorates from Trinity College, Dublin, Limerick University and Marymount College, New York.
John B. Keane remains one of Mercier's best-loved and best-selling authors.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
An Irish King Lear, Creon and Willie Loman,
This review is from: The Field (Paperback)
A universal parable of an ordinary man with extraordinary qualities. The Bull McCabe is a tragically flawed hero who like his more noble but no more heroic predecessors in Greek or Shakespearean tragedy is as much "sinned against" as sinning. This politically incorrect Irish hero pays the price for his all -consuming obsession with land and overwhelming desire to protect his family dynasty. Read and see this play and admire an ordinary man who is eloquent and persuasive enough to challenge the powerful Irish trinity of God, Law and Society. A hero before his time for all time!
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
"A law for...priests, doctors, and lawmen. No law for us.",
By
This review is from: The Field (Paperback)
Harking to one of his favorite themes, Keane, one of Ireland's foremost dramatists, once again focuses his action on a character who is at odds with the law but in tune with the sentiment of his fellow farmers. Big Bull McCabe, a farmer whose nineteen-acre farm has no water, has leased four acres of poor land from Maggie Butler for five years, gradually developing it into prime grazing pasture by fertilizing it, fencing it, and pulling the thistles, to give his cows access to water. Now Maggie wants to sell the land to the highest bidder, and Bull, having invested his time and effort, believes that he has rights to the property. When an "imported land grabber" from England offers an unusually high price for the land, Bull, his son, and a friend decide to take justice into their own hands.
The passion of local Kerry farmers for their land, and their consequent resentment of outsiders who threaten the land, take on particularly dark tones in this play. Bull, who seems to have sprung fully grown from the soil, believes that land has its own morality, that the laws which are imposed by "society" are irrelevant. He is willing to do whatever it takes to control the outcome. The other characters here are equally tied to the land, supporting Bull and adhering to a code of silence regarding his activities when the law and the local priest investigate the dispute. Starkly realistic, the play is simple in concept, but its revelations of the local Irish culture and the response of these Kerry farmers to outsiders and "the clan of the round collar" taps into the "us vs. them" dynamic of the disenfranchised everywhere. Bull is no more extreme in his temper and his desire to protect what is "his" than is Mick Flanagan, the pub keeper, who treats his constantly pregnant wife Maimie like property. Dark and powerful in the tension it establishes between the "law" and the men it is supposed to govern, the play is firmly rooted in the local culture, establishing Bull McCabe as one of Ireland's most famous characters. Mary Whipple
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