Sean O'Casey was born in 1880 and lived through a bitterly hard boyhood in a Dublin tenement house. He never went to school but received most of his education in the streets of Dublin, and taught himself to read at the age of fourteen. He was successively a newspaper-seller, docker, stone-breaker, railway-worker and builders' labourer. In 1913 he helped to organise the Irish Citizen Army which fought in the streets of Dublin, and at the same time he was learning his dramatic technique by reading Shakespeare and watching the plays of Dion Boucicault. His early works were performed at the Abbey Theatre, Dublin, and Lady Gregory made him welcome at Coole, but disagreement followed and after visiting America in the late thirties O'Casey settled in Devonshire. He lived there until his death in 1964, though still drawing the themes of many of his plays from the life he knew so well on the banks of the Liffey. Out of the ceaseless dramatic experimenting in his plays O'Casey created a flamboyance and versatility that sustain the impression of bigness of mind that is inseparable from his tragi-comic vision of life.
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5 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Sean O'Casey's "Three Plays",
By A Customer
This review is from: Three Plays: Juno and the Paycock, the Shadow of a Gunman, the Plow and the Stars (Paperback)
This book contains three plays. The first is called Juno and the Paycock. It is set in the year 1922 at the time of the Civil War. It is about a family who live in a tenement house in Dublin. Juno is the mother and is married to a drunk - Jack Boyle who's best friend is a man called Joxer Day another drunk. The second play "The Shadow of a Gunman" is set in May 1920 in a room tenement in Dublin. Donal Davoreen, Seamus Shields Adolphus Grigson and Minnie Powell all live in the tenement. O'Casey writes brilliantly in this play. The Third play "The Plough and the Stars" is described at the start as a tragedy in 4 acts, it is as described. the first two acts are in 1915 and acts three and four are set in 1916 during the Easter Rising. It is my favourite play out of the three. Overall this book is an excellent read and Ienjoyed it very much. O'Casey captures the felling of the time brilliantly and writes in the genuine Dublin language of that time.
4.0 out of 5 stars
Irish Spirit in Triplicate,
By
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This review is from: Three Plays: Juno and the Paycock, the Shadow of a Gunman, the Plow and the Stars (Paperback)
This is a must have for any person who is interested in Ireland, or enjoys Irish culture. Three Plays presents O'Casey's Dublin Trilogy in one bound volume. Composing the trilogy are "The Shadow of the Gunman" first performed in April 1923, "Juno and the Paycock" first performed in 1924, and "The Plough and Stars", which was first performed in 1926 and caused a riot during it's fourth performance by female Irish patriots.The works in here are great, and were publish within the playwright's lifetime to help ensure accuracy. What can be improved is how the publisher chose to present the plays. The first flaw is the order of the plays. St. Martin's press decided to place Juno and the Paycock be for The Shadow of the Gunman. I don't know why they would do this. This is neither the order of the plays in their chronological setting, or the order of the play's performance/publication date. The Second flaw with the edition its self is that the spacing between words, and format of the lines is a cross between a script and novelization. If a play is read ideally it should be read out loud and with others. This is more difficult with this version of the text due to line spacing and indentation. That being said you can't beat the price.
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