FREE THREE DUBLIN PLAYS: SHADOW OF A GUNMAN, JUNO AND THE PAYCOCK AND PLOUGH AND THE STARS PDF Sean O'Casey | 272 pages | 20 Oct 2000 | FABER & FABER | 9780571195527 | English | London, United Kingdom Three Plays: Juno and the Paycock / The Shadow of a Gunman / The Plow and the Stars by Seán O'Casey His father died when John was six, and thereafter the family became progressively poorer. With only three years of formal schooling, he educated himself by reading. He started work at 14, mostly at manual labour, including several years with the Irish railways. He also joined the Irish Citizen Armya paramilitary arm of the Irish labour unions, and drew up its constitution in At this time he became disillusioned with the Irish nationalist movement because its leaders put nationalist ideals before socialist ones. Disgusted with the existing political parties, he turned his energies to drama. His tragicomedies reflect in part his mixed feelings about his fellow slum dwellers, seeing them as incapable of giving a socialist direction to the Irish cause but at the same time admirable for their unconquerable spirit. After several of his plays had been rejected, the Abbey Theatre in Dublin produced The Shadow of a Gunmanset during the guerrilla strife between the Irish Three Dublin Plays: Shadow of a Gunman Army and British forces. In the Abbey staged Juno and the Paycockhis most popular play, set during the period of civil war over the terms of Irish independence. The Plough and the Starswith the Easter Rising as its Juno and the Paycock and Plough and the Stars, caused riots at the Abbey by patriots who thought the play denigrated Irish heroes. Another Expressionist play, Within the Gatesfollowed, in which the modern world is symbolized by the happenings in a public park. The Star Turns Red is an antifascist play, and the semiautobiographical Red Roses for Me is set in Dublin at the time of the Irish railways strike of His last full- length play was a satire on Dublin intellectualsBehind the Green Curtains Juno and the Paycock and Plough and the Stars All are tragicomedies set in the slums of Dublin during times of war and revolution. Violent death and the everyday realities of tenement life throw into relief Juno and the Paycock and Plough and the Stars blustering rhetoric and patriotic swagger of men caught up in the struggle for Irish independence. The resulting ironic juxtapositions of the comic and tragic reveal the waste of war and the corrosive effects of poverty. In his later plays he tended to abandon vigorous characterization in favour of expressionism and symbolism, and sometimes the drama is marred by didacticism. Print Cite. Facebook Twitter. Give Feedback External Websites. Let us know if you have suggestions to improve this article requires login. External Websites. Articles from Britannica Encyclopedias for elementary and high school students. The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica Encyclopaedia Britannica's editors oversee subject areas in which they Juno and the Paycock and Plough and the Stars extensive knowledge, whether from years of experience gained by working on that content or via study for an advanced degree Britannica Quiz. History Makers: Fact or Fiction? Albert Einstein believed that mathematics problems should have very complex solutions. Get exclusive access to content from our First Edition with your subscription. Subscribe today. Learn More in these related Britannica articles:. Several of these writers became interested in innovative techniques and forms. During the s, Yeats too tried his hand at experimentation, composing poetic…. His plays often explore the effect on ordinary Dubliners of events sparked by political unrest. The Shadow of a Gunman …. History at your fingertips. Sign up here to see what happened On This Dayevery day in your inbox! Email address. By signing up, you agree to our Privacy Notice. Be on the lookout for your Britannica newsletter to get trusted stories delivered right to your inbox. Sean O'Casey | Irish dramatist | Britannica Goodreads helps you keep track of books you want to read. Want to Read saving…. Want to Read Currently Reading Read. Other editions. Enlarge cover. Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Open Preview See a Problem? Details if other :. Thanks for telling us about the problem. Return to Book Page. Sean O'Casey was born in 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 he helped to organise the Iri Sean O'Casey was born in and lived through a bitterly hard boyhood in a Dublin tenement house. In 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 Juno and the Paycock and Plough and the Stars, 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 inthough 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. Get A Copy. Mass Market Paperbackpages. More Details Original Title. Ireland Dublin Ireland. Other Editions 7. Friend Reviews. To see what your friends thought of this book, please sign up. To ask other readers questions about Three Playsplease sign up. Lists with This Book. Community Reviews. Showing Average rating 3. Rating details. More filters. Sort order. All three plays are quite good. I love how O'Casey writes completely in vernacular, it gives the plays a downright sense of nationalistic importance. Overall it's a good collection. Oct 26, Roger Cottrell rated it it was amazing. A Marxist, a classicist and 20th Century Ireland's greatest playwright. Because of his scrupulous criticism of Republicanism, his revolutionary socialism and exile in Britain he's almost a non person for Irish literary critics and wasn't mentioned once when I was at film school in Dublin. And I ask myself, what's so great about Samuel Becket in any case, when he wouldn't know one end of Aristotle's Poetics from a shovel. O'Casey's representation of working class life Juno and the Paycock and Plough and the Stars Dublin is brilliant, too. There's a pub named after him near the Abbey Theatre even though he was tetotal but the Flowing Tide next door is a better gaff. Feb 11, Angelique rated it really liked it Shelves: books-read-inthings-read-in This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. Although sometimes it was just him telling what happened and not getting under the drama. I absolutely loved re reading Juno and the Paycock. Great characters, made me think about wealth, the words flew off the page and I could see it all. By far, the best of the three. The Shadow of a Gunman was too literal. I was saying this to a friend and he was like is it the snakes on a plane of Irish plays why are all this mutha fucking gunmen in these mutha fucking shadows? It was like a history play. It depends a lot on staging. The Plough and the Stars again was like a history play. I loved the Dublin way of writing Bourwaazee! Sep 11, Abby rated it it was amazing. First, what I loved most about these plays are the language and how the phonetic words of the Irish from different classes are written on the page. I immediately heard them Three Dublin Plays: Shadow of a Gunman my head and was put in the play's time and place. Paycock refers to Juno's ne'er do well husba First, what I loved most about these plays are the language and how the phonetic words of the Irish from different classes are written on the page. Paycock refers to Juno's ne'er do well husband. Of course that makes Juno the long suffering wife. If you are not aware of the history of Juno and the Paycock and Plough and the Stars during the time of the play you may want to read up on it. However, I am aware of the history but felt there was well laid information placed in the dialogue as a guide. But knowing that the British Military were highly visible and why and what their nicknames were is important. The most fascinating thing about this play is how Three Dublin Plays: Shadow of a Gunman the IRA and other even more vigilant Irish groups could and would bully the citizens into submission in the name of freeing Ireland. Ultimately, even though "tragic" things happened to Juno and her family, I do not consider the play a complete "Tragedy" because I found hope at the end of the Juno and the Paycock and Plough and the Stars. Most characters had endings to bad relationships and were beginning lives of truth and strength. The play "The Shadow of the Gunman" is truly a tragedy. The play takes place in May The British army is referred to as "the Black and Tans" because of their tan military clothing and black leather belts.