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The Quare Fellow
''The Quare Fellow'' is Brendan Behan's first play, first produced in 1954. The title is taken from a Hiberno-English pronunciation of ''queer''. Plot The play is set in Mountjoy Prison, Dublin. The anti-hero of the play, The Quare Fellow, is never seen or heard; he functions as the play's central conceit. He is a man condemned to die on the following day, for killing his brother. It revolts his fellow inmates far less than that of The Other Fellow, a very camp, almost Wildean, gay man. There are three generations of prisoners in Mountjoy including boisterous youngsters who can irritate both other inmates and the audience and the weary old lags Neighbour and "methylated martyr" Dunlavin. The first act is played out in the cramped area outside five cells and is comedic. After the interval, the pace slows considerably and the play becomes much darker, as the time for the execution approaches. The focus moves to the exercise yard and to the workers who are digging the grave for the s ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Brendan Behan
Brendan Francis Aidan Behan (christened Francis Behan) ( ; ga, Breandán Ó Beacháin; 9 February 1923 – 20 March 1964) was an Irish poet, short story writer, novelist, playwright, and Irish Republican activist who wrote in both English and Irish. He was named by Irish Central as one of the greatest Irish writers of all time. An Irish republican and a volunteer in the Irish Republican Army, Behan was born in Dublin into a staunchly republican family becoming a member of the IRA's youth organization Fianna Éireann at the age of fourteen. There was also a strong emphasis on Irish history and culture in his home, which meant he was steeped in literature and patriotic ballads from an early age. At age 16, Behan joined the IRA, which led to his serving time in a borstal youth prison in the United Kingdom and imprisonment in Ireland. During this time, he took it upon himself to study and he became a fluent speaker of the Irish language. Subsequently released from prison as pa ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Theatre Workshop
Theatre Workshop is a theatre group whose long-serving director was Joan Littlewood. Many actors of the 1950s and 1960s received their training and first exposure with the company, many of its productions were transferred to theatres in the West End, and some, such as ''Oh, What a Lovely War!'' and ''A Taste of Honey'', were made into films. Formation Joan Littlewood and Ewan MacColl met and married in 1934, while both were working with the Theatre of Action. They started their own collaboration developing radio plays for the BBC, taking scripts and cast from local workers. However, both MI5 and the Special Branch maintained a watch on the couple because of their support for the Communist Party of Great Britain. Littlewood was precluded from working for the BBC as a children's programme presenter and some of MacColl's work was banned from broadcast. In the late 1930s Littlewood and MacColl formed an acting troupe called the Theatre Union. This was dissolved in 1940, but in 194 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
1950s Debut Plays
Year 195 ( CXCV) was a common year starting on Wednesday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Scrapula and Clemens (or, less frequently, year 948 '' Ab urbe condita''). The denomination 195 for this year has been used since the early medieval period, when the Anno Domini calendar era became the prevalent method in Europe for naming years. Events By place Roman Empire * Emperor Septimius Severus has the Roman Senate deify the previous emperor Commodus, in an attempt to gain favor with the family of Marcus Aurelius. * King Vologases V and other eastern princes support the claims of Pescennius Niger. The Roman province of Mesopotamia rises in revolt with Parthian support. Severus marches to Mesopotamia to battle the Parthians. * The Roman province of Syria is divided and the role of Antioch is diminished. The Romans annexed the Syrian cities of Edessa and Nisibis. Severus re-establish his ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
1954 Plays
Events January * January 1 – The Soviet Union ceases to demand war reparations from West Germany. * January 3 – The Italian broadcaster RAI officially begins transmitting. * January 7 – Georgetown-IBM experiment: The first public demonstration of a machine translation system is held in New York, at the head office of IBM. * January 10 – BOAC Flight 781, a de Havilland Comet jet plane, disintegrates in mid-air due to metal fatigue, and crashes in the Mediterranean near Elba; all 35 people on board are killed. * January 12 – 1954 Blons avalanches, Avalanches in Austria kill more than 200. * January 15 – Mau Mau rebellion, Mau Mau leader Waruhiu Itote is captured in Kenya. * January 17 – In Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, Yugoslavia, Milovan Đilas, one of the leading members of the League of Communists of Yugoslavia, is relieved of his duties. * January 20 – The US-based National Negro Network is established, with 46 m ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Music Of Ireland
Irish music is music that has been created in various genres on the island of Ireland. The indigenous music of the island is termed Irish traditional music. It has remained vibrant through the 20th and into the 21st century, despite globalising cultural forces. In spite of emigration and a well-developed connection to music influences from Britain and the United States, Irish traditional music has kept many of its elements and has itself influenced many forms of music, such as country and roots music in the United States, which in turn have had some influence on modern rock music. It has occasionally been fused with rock and roll, punk rock, and other genres. Some of these fusion artists have attained mainstream success, at home and abroad. In art music, Ireland has a history reaching back to Gregorian chants in the Middle Ages, choral and harp music of the Renaissance, court music of the Baroque and early Classical period, as well as many Romantic, late Romantic a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Auld Triangle
"The Auld Triangle" is a song by Dick Shannon, often attributed to Brendan Behan, who made it famous when he included it in his 1954 play ''The Quare Fellow''. He first performed it publicly in 1952 on the RTE radio programme 'The Ballad Maker's Saturday Night', produced by Mícheál Ó hAodha. Behan's biographer, Michael O'Sullivan, recorded, 'It has been believed for many years that Brendan wrote that famous prison song but Mícheál Ó hAodha says he never laid claim to authorship. Indeed he asked him to send a copyright to another Dubliner, Dick Shannon.' When he recorded the song for ''Brendan Behan Sings Irish Folksongs and Ballads'' (Spoken Arts 1960), Behan introduced it with these words: 'This song was written by a person who will never hear it recorded, because he's not in possession of a gramophone. He's ... he's ... pretty much of a tramp.' Shannon's authorship was asserted by his relatives in discussions on the Mudcat Cafe folksong forum. Here, Deasún ÓSeanáin, hi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Walter Macken
Walter Macken (3 May 1915 – 22 April 1967) (Irish Uaitéar Ó Maicín), was born in Galway, Ireland. He was a writer of short stories, novels and plays. Biography Walter Macken was originally an actor, principally with the Taibhdhearc (where he met his wife, Peggy) in Galway, and The Abbey Theatre in Dublin. He also played lead roles on Broadway in M. J. Molloy's ''The King of Friday's Men'' and his own play ''Home Is the Hero''. The success of his third book, ''Rain on the Wind'' (winner of the Literary Guild award in the USA), enabled him to focus his energies on writing. He also acted in films, notably in Arthur Dreifuss' adaptation of Brendan Behan's ''The Quare Fellow''. He is perhaps best known for his trilogy of Irish historical novels '' Seek the Fair Land'', '' The Silent People'' and '' The Scorching Wind''. His son Ultan Macken is a well-known journalist in the print and broadcast media of Ireland, and wrote a biography of his father, ''Walter Macken: Dreams on P ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sylvia Syms
Sylvia May Laura Syms (born 6 January 1934) is an English actress, best known for her roles in the films ''Woman in a Dressing Gown'' (1957), ''Ice Cold in Alex'' (1958), ''No Trees in the Street'' (1959), ''Victim'' (1961), and ''The Tamarind Seed'' (1974). In 2006 she portrayed The Queen Mother in the Stephen Frears movie ''The Queen'', about the death of Diana, Princess of Wales, and days leading up to Diana's funeral. She remains active in films, television and theatre. Personal life Syms was born in Woolwich, London, England, the daughter of Daisy (''née'' Hale) and Edwin Syms, a trade unionist and civil servant. She grew up in Well Hall, Eltham"Well Hall" entry of ''London Gazetteer'' by Russ Willey, (Chambers 2006) (online extrac and was educated at Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, The Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London, on whose council she later served. Her daughter Beatie Edney is also an actress, and she is the aunt of musicians Nick and Alex Webb. Career ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Patrick McGoohan
Patrick Joseph McGoohan (; March 19, 1928 – January 13, 2009) was an Irish-American actor, director, screenwriter, and producer of film and television. Born in the United States to Irish emigrant parents, he was raised in Ireland and England. He began his career in England in the 1950s and rose to prominence for his role as secret agent John Drake in the ITC espionage programme '' Danger Man'' (1960–1968). He then produced and created '' The Prisoner'' (1967–1968), a surrealistic television series in which he starred as Number Six, an unnamed British intelligence agent who is abducted and imprisoned in a mysterious coastal village. Beginning in the 1970s, McGoohan maintained a long-running association with ''Columbo'', writing, directing, producing and appearing in several episodes. His notable film roles include Dr. Paul Ruth in '' Scanners'' (1981) and King Edward I in ''Braveheart'' (1995). He was a BAFTA Award and two-time Primetime Emmy Award winner. Early ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Arthur Dreifuss
Arthur Dreifuss (sometimes credited as Dreyfuss; March 25, 1908 – December 31, 1993)"Arthur Dreifuss, 85; Producer, Director for Movies, Television" ''The Los Angeles Times'' . January 7, 1994. Page A24. Retrieved March 1, 2021. was a German-born American film director, and occasional producer, screenwriter and choreographer. Dreifuss was active from 1939 through 1968, directing about 50 films and producing a few short subjects. Toward the end of his career, Dreifuss concentrated on youth culture films and exploitation movies. Selected filmography * ''[...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Circle In The Square Theatre
The Circle in the Square Theatre is a Broadway theater at 235 West 50th Street, in the basement of Paramount Plaza, in the Midtown Manhattan neighborhood of New York City. It is one of two Broadway theaters that use a thrust stage that extends into the audience on three sides. History Previous locations The original Circle in the Square was founded by Theodore Mann, José Quintero, Jason Wingreen, Aileen Cramer and Emily Stevens in 1951 and was located at 5 Sheridan Square (a former nightclub) in Greenwich Village. The original Circle in the Square did not have a theater license, but Mann was able to get a cabaret license; the production staff and off duty actors served as waiters if anyone insisted on ordering food or drinks. Many of the theater personnel, both acting and technical, lived on the premises. Even classical performances took place here: Pianist Grete Sultan, who later became a well-known interpreter of New Music and was John Cage's close friend, performed the ''Gol ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Streatham Hill Theatre
Streatham Hill Theatre is a historic theatre in Lambeth, England. It was built in 1928–29 and was the last theatre designed by W. G. R. Sprague. Opening in 1929, it staged theatre, opera, ballet and variety until 1962, apart from a period between 1944 and 1950 when it was closed due to bomb damage. The venue operated as a sister-theatre to Golders Green Hippodrome. In 1962 it closed to theatre, reopening as a Mecca bingo hall. Bingo continued under several operators until 2017. It was Grade II listed In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ... in 1994 as "an unusually lavish example of a theatre built in the short-lived revival of building in 1929–30; as a suburban example of this date the building may be unique." The building was added to the Theatre's Trust Theatres ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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