Audio Shivaun O'Casey talks with MPR's Tom Crann (All Things Considered, 8/10/05) Sean O'Casey talks about his life as an Irish writer living in England, in an excerpt from "Under a Colored Cap" Shivaun O'Casey reads from her father's memoir, "Deep in Devon" Photos Father and daughter O'Casey and his wife The O'Casey family Resources Today in Literature: Sean O'Casey's life and works Minnesota Irish Fair Tools E-mail this page Print this page Sponsor

Playwright Sean O'Casey's life retold by his daughter
by Tom Crann, Minnesota Public Radio
August 10, 2005

Irish playwright Sean O'Casey, right, is shown here with his daughter Shivaun. O'Casey's life and work is the subject of a documentary produced by Shivaun. (Photo courtesy of Shivaun O'Casey)

St. Paul, Minn. — It's not every day that a new play causes riots at the theater. But there were indeed riots when Sean O'Casey's "The Plough and the Stars" was first performed at Dublin's Abbey Theatre in 1926. In fact, the police had to be called in to restore the peace.

"Plough" and two other plays from the 1920s, "The Shadow of a Gunman" and "Juno and the Paycock," set in Dublin at the time of Ireland's uprising, have now become stage classics.

Those riots weren't the first time playwright Sean O'Casey would be involved in controversy in his native Ireland, and it certainly wouldn't be the last.

Several years later, poet William Butler Yeats, who ran Dublin's Abbey, refused to stage "The Silver Tassie," another O'Casey play. "You have no subject," Yeats sniffed.

Shortly thereafter, O'Casey left his native Dublin for England to receive a literary prize. He seldom returned home.

O'Casey stayed in England and made a new life for himself there. But Ireland never left his consciousness nor his work -- more plays, essays, and volumes of memoir he wrote about his upbringing in Dublin's tenements at the turn of the 20th century.

O'Casey died in 1964, at the age of 84. Despite his voluminous writings in the decades he lived in England, he is still best known for that "Dublin Trilogy," the plays that captured the sound and spirit of his fellow Dubliners who worked and lived in poverty in the tenements.

Sean O'Casey's life and work is the subject of a new documentary film produced and directed by his daughter, Shivaun. It's called "Under A Colored Cap," and it will be screened Thursday evening as part of a summer school in Irish culture, part of this year's Minnesota Irish Fair in St. Paul.

Shivaun O'Casey talked with MPR's Tom Crann about her father's work, and about the documentary. To listen to their interview, choose the audio link in the right column.