The Square Peg AUTHOR Harry Sinton Gibson Setting The sitting room behind the shop of Joseph Cunningham, in the town of Cloughmany in Northern Ireland, in November 1930. Synopsis J.C Cunningham, shopkeeper, turns hard and bitter when his father bequeathes the substantial family fortune to his sister Sarah, and leaves the shop business only to him. Determined to make sons George and Dick upstanding members of the community and the Calvinist church to which they belong, he thwarts George's ambition to become a horse-trainer, and decides that Dick will become a minister. As each rebels in their own way, wife Mary quietly despairs, and as the years go by the house becomes one of misery. J.C.'s refusal to change results in the slow collapse of the business, but as the facts of this emerge, Mary finds her voice. Through her efforts, a glimmer of hope presents itself for the future. PLAY TYPE Plays General Number of Acts Full-Length Cast Size Male 9 Cast Size Female 4 Date of First Production 4 September 1950 Production Produced by Ulster Group Theatre ORIGINAL VENUE Group Theatre Original Cast Dick Cunningham Laurence Beattie May Cunningham Elizabeth Begley Major Berkley James Connolly (2) Sarah Bannin Sheila Crawford Willie Dudgeon J.G. Devlin Joseph Cunningham R.H. MacCandless Rev. Alexander McCrea, B.A. Patrick Magee John Fannon Ricky Matthews Annie McQuillan Sheila McGibbon George Cunningham William Millar Charles Gorman Maurice O'Callaghan Samuel Graham Joseph Tomelty Bessie Margaret Walker Production Team Settings by Dan Fitzpatrick General Manager Joseph Tomelty Produced by Harold Goldblatt Chief Electrician Dan O'Connell (1) Records and Reproduction W. Erskine Mayne CLICK HERE for information on script availability, production rights and translations for this play Information for this entry has come from the original production programme and the printed play script, held at the Theatre and Performing Arts Archive of the Linen Hall Library, Belfast. Printer friendly version