It’s spring of 1916 and outrage is in the air as a cast of characters in Dublin’s tenements begin the disaster that is to become The Easter Rebellion.  Dublin’s Catholics stirred up by the onerous rule as a colony of Britainwhile many of them are fighting on behalf of Britain in the trenches of Europe in WWI, are organizing into a fighting force of butchers, tanners, carpenters, and other working men wearing the green and carrying rifles.  They march under the  Starry Flag of the Irish Citizen Army.

We meet the Clitheroes, Jack, a Commandant, and Nora his pregnant wife, her uncle Peter and cousin Young Covey who share the tenement apartment’s two rooms.  The latter two’s struggles provide much of the background for the play with Peter, a committed Irish nationalist, arguing for the overthrow of British rule while Young Covey, a socialist argues for an alliance of working men to take over the means of production rather than nationalism.  Mrs. Grogan, a charwoman,  and her consumptive daughter, Mrs. Burgess, a fruit peddlar and British supporter, and Fluther, a carpenter complete the main cast who descend into a tragic ending with death and punishment dealt out by the Tommies.

I’m not very well informed about the Easter Rebellion, though it was presaged by one of last month’s books, Maggie O’Farrell’s “Land” and its tale of the Great Hunger.  O’Casey’s play made for powerful reading, and perhaps in keeping with the riots that greeted its debut at the Abbey Theater, it has maintained its impact and drama for 100 years, certainly a classic of the theater.