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The Arts Council Playography Na Gaeilge

Plays

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The Old Man

A play in Two Acts, by Dorothy Macardle

OVERVIEW

  • Playwright

    Dorothy Macardle 

  • Setting

    Dublin - the Parlour of a house on Wood Quay. Time: the night of May 26th-27th, 1848.

  • Notes

    According to Cathy Leeney (' Irish Women Playwrights, 1900-1939': Peter Lang, 2010), the original manuscript for 'The Old Man' has never been found. The same is true of many of Macardle's plays, possibly, as Leeney suggests, because her personal papers were destroyed by her younger brother after her death in 1958.

  • Synopsis

    A two-act play set on the eve of the deportation of Young Irelander and failed rebel leader John Mitchel to to Australia. When three firebrand youths attempt to stage a last minute rescue and spark another insurrection, the elderly grandfather of one of them, himself a former idealist and a veteran of Robert Emmet's disastrous rising in 1803, attempts to use his widom and experience to reason them out of it. The play draws attention to the inevitable conflict of idealism and pragmatism at the heart of the Irish nationalist movement.

  • Play Type

    Plays General

    Number Of Acts

    Full-Length

  • Cast Size Male

    13

  • Cast Size Female

    1

Original Production

Original Cast  
M'Crae Udolphus Wright
Tom Michael J. Dolan
David Eric Gorman
Francis Meaghar F J McCormick
Cornelius Sheridan Barry Fitzgerald
Nick Arthur Shields
Hugh Peter Nolan
Robert Emmet Sheridan Tony Quinn (1)
Pauline Sheridan Betty Chancellor
McGuire P.J. Carolan
William Scully T. Moran
John Walter Dillon
Joe Desmond Finn
Michael M.J. Scott
Production Team  
Musical Director Dr. J.F. Larchet
Produced by Michael J. Dolan
Stage Manager F J McCormick

Unpublished Scripts

Rights Information

  • Not Found

Source Of Information