Read in my hardcover of [b:Five Great Modern Irish Plays|3743896|Five Great Modern Irish Plays|George Jean Nathan|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1454014822s/3743896.jpg|3787724] & listened to a full cast audio production on YouTube (introduced by the author).

This play is set in 1922 Dublin during the tail end of the Irish War of Independence and is about the Boyle family. While 'Captain' Jack Boyle, the father, is something of a buffoon, this is by no means a comedy. Juno Boyle, the mother, is struggling to keep the family going while her husband, unemployed, drinks with his 'butty' Joxer; the son Johnny, who lost an arm in the Easter Rising of 1916, is on the verge of a nervous breakdown; and the daughter Mary has thrown over her young man Jerry Devine. In case you were wondering, 'paycock' is the word "peacock" pronounced with an Irish accent.

I found this play to be tragic in a Shakespearean sense -- while it looks like things might improve for the family early on, in the end everything is much much worse. I wonder if O'Casey was trying to say that independent Ireland ended up worse off than they had been before.... ( )

Read in my hardcover of "Five Great Modern Irish Plays" & listened to a full cast audio production on YouTube (introduced by the author).

This play is set in 1922 Dublin during the tail end of the Irish War of Independence and is about the Boyle family. While 'Captain' Jack Boyle, the father, is something of a buffoon, this is by no means a comedy. Juno Boyle, the mother, is struggling to keep the family going while her husband, unemployed, drinks with his 'butty' Joxer; the son Johnny, who lost an arm in the Easter Rising of 1916, is on the verge of a nervous breakdown; and the daughter Mary has thrown over her young man Jerry Devine. In case you were wondering, 'paycock' is the word "peacock" pronounced with an Irish accent.

I found this play to be tragic in a Shakespearean sense -- while it looks like things might improve for the family early on, in the end everything is much much worse. I wonder if O'Casey was trying to say that independent Ireland ended up worse off than they had been before.... ( )