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Three Plays: Sive; The Field; Big Maggie

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This Book is such good value. Not only do you get three plays but i tell you you get Some entertainment. A most enjoyable read!

SIVE- I love Sive it is an extremely sad story about a young girls who is being sold into marriage by her uncle and aunt. Her grandmothewr is againstit especially because the man is about 70 and also bercause Sive is already in love with Liam Scuab. On the eve of her wedding sive makes a decision that will chande everything-Forever!

THE FIELD- Everyone knows the bull but the bull will go to whatever lenghts he must to get the most important thing in the world(to him) and that is land. But will he succeed and will Mrs.Butler-the widow who is selling theland get a fair price. Main characters include the bull,the birtd and Tadgh. Is tadgh like his father-Is he his fathers son?

BIG MAGGIE- Now widowed ansd free Maggie decides that she will wear the trousers but she finds that the harder she gets the childrenb just fly thenest and all move away. even her son(the homebird) has to choose between his mother or the love of his life. His decision will also change what is to come. Will Maggie continue to fight alone? Does Maggie even know.

The Author, John B Keane, was a Kerryman through and through, and all his books wallow in the heritage of that county of Ireland. (Kerry is known in Ireland as "The Kingdom") Well known for his novels such as the Bodhran Makers and Durango, it is for his plays that Keane will be best remembered.

Celebrated on the stage of the National theatre of Ireland in the 1980's these three plays went on to tour widely round the world, and the Field was made into a powerful film starring Richard Harris, Tom Berenger, John Hurt and Brenda Fricker.

Each is a mixture of innocence and cynicism, earthy humour and godlike aspiration.

Sive, the tale of a beautiful girl sold under the table to an old man. A tale of corrupted innocence and how greed can shatter families.

The Field, a deep rooted story of the importance of land to rural people, how it transcends even family loyalties, but how it finally breaks the hardest of hard men.

Big Maggie, Keane at his best, giving voice to the repressed sexuality of the Irish woman.

Three wonderful plays with themes that transcend the parochial nature of their setting. They have a simplicity and universality that is almost the equivalent of Greek plays such as Antigone or Lysistrata.