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The long shadow of a masterpiece
JENNY FARRELL celebrates the continuing relevance of the first English-speaking playwright of proletarian origin to create world theatre
opinion

SEAN O’CASEY’s play The Shadow of a Gunman premiered 100 years ago, on April 12 1923, at Dublin’s national Irish theatre, the Abbey Theatre. 

The theatre, which grew out of the Irish Renaissance movement for the renewal of Irish literature in 1904, encouraged new Irish writers and provided a platform for the exploration of progressive ideas on stage. 

The Shadow of a Gunman is the first of O’Casey’s three Dublin plays, which examine the maturity and fortunes of the people at three important moments in Irish history — the Easter Rising (1916), the war of independence (1918-21), and the civil war (1922-23) — all of which O’Casey experienced. 

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