Almanac of Story Tellers: Sean O'Casey

 Every day brings a new story.  And each day contributes to the art of story telling -- in prose and poetry, in music, on the stage, on the screen, and, of course, in books. 

Today is the story of March 30th

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    It is the 89th day of the year, leaving 276 days remaining in 2022.

   

    On this date in 1880, the playwright Sean O'Casey was born in Dublin.

    O'Casey told his stories in the theaters of Ireland and London.

    And those stories -- of the poor and working class living in the slums of his hometown during revolts and wars and strikes -- had rarely been told on the stage. O'Casey told them by mixing tragedy and comedy in a way no one had before.

     His plays are praised for their realistic dialogue, working-class language, and strong characters. But his later plays tended to reduce the realism, turning to symbolism and expressionism to make their points.

    O'Casey came to the writing life in a roundabout manner. Born into a Protestant family, he was drawn to Irish nationalism and the Irish labor movement as a young man. He wrote for The Irish Worker and joined the Irish Citizens Army. He became a member of the Gaelic League and taught himself the Irish language.

    But he became disillusioned because those groups put nationalism before socialism. He did not participate in the Easter Rising. 

    He wrote several plays, but none was staged. In 1923, the Abbey Theatre agreed to perform The Shadow of a Gunman, about the impact of revolution on the people living in the Dublin slums. His next two plays -- Juno and the Paycock, and The Plough and the Stars -- also debuted at the Abbey.

    Juno dealt with the effect of the Irish Civil War on the working class, and it turned out to be among his most popular plays. Plough had a similar theme, but was set during the Easter Rising. It was not as popular, partly because some saw it as an attack on the Men of 1916, still considered hereos in most of Ireland. It caused riots at the Abbey.

    By 1926, O'Casey had moved to London, married, and continued writing. But the Abbey rejected two plays, Expressionist in style. He continued to write with anti-war, anti-fascist, and pro-labor themes. They were performed in various locations. One, Within the Gates, was performed in New York City.

    His plays also exposed what he saw as puritanical Catholicism in Ireland.

    O'Casey died in 1964 in Devon, England.