Raging: Outrage: The Civil War
()
About this ebook
Alice and Nell are sisters who play key roles in organising civic resistance and the propaganda war. They are fervent, they are funny, they are human and they – like everyone else in Ireland – become deeply conflicted as the country spins toward a shattering Civil War that splits the nation, and continues to haunt Irish politics, society and culture to this day.
Outrage was first staged as a touring production by Fishamble: The New Play Company, in partnership with Dublin Port Company and Meath County Council, in 2022.
Deirdre Kinahan's Raging trilogy tells powerful stories drawing on a tumultuous period of conflict in Irish history, from the 1916 Easter Rising to the Civil War which began in 1922. Each of the three plays – Wild Sky, Embargo and Outrage – was first performed a century after the event which it depicts, and they were commissioned and performed by companies including Fishamble: The New Play Company, Meath County Council Arts Office, Dublin Port Company and Iarnród Éireann.
Together, they challenge the historical narrative, mixing true-life testimonies with powerful drama to create a theatrical hurricane of empathy, action and truth.
Deirdre Kinahan
Deirdre Kinahan is an award-winning playwright and a member of Aosdána, Ireland's elected body of outstanding artists. Her plays include: An Old Song, Half Forgotten (Abbey Theatre, 2023); Outrage (Fishamble, 2022); The Visit (Draiocht, Dublin Theatre Festival 2021); The Saviour (Landmark Productions, 2021); In the Middle of the Fields (Solas Nua DC, 2021); Embargo (Fishamble 2020); Dear Ireland (Abbey Theatre, 2020); The Bloodied Field (Abbey Theatre 2020); Rathmines Road (Fishamble and Abbey Theatre, 2018); Crossings (Pentabus Theatre, 2018); The Unmanageable Sisters, an adaptation of Michel Tremblay's Les Belles Soeurs (Abbey Theatre, Dublin, 2018); Wild Sky (Dublin, 2016); Spinning (Fishamble, 2014); Halcyon Days (Solstice Arts Centre, Co. Meath, and Dublin Theatre Festival, 2012); and Moment (Solstice Arts Centre, Co. Meath, 2009; Bush Theatre, London, 2011).
Read more from Deirdre Kinahan
Hue & Cry (NHB Modern Plays) Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Saviour (NHB Modern Plays) Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsRathmines Road (NHB Modern Plays) Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSpinning (NHB Modern Plays) Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Halcyon Days (NHB Modern Plays) Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsAn Old Song, Half Forgotten (NHB Modern Plays) Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsBé Carna Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsRaging: Embargo: The War of Independence Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsDeirdre Kinahan: Shorts (NHB Modern Plays): Five Plays Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsWild Notes (NHB Modern Plays) Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsRaging: Three Plays/Seven Years of Warfare in Ireland (NHB Modern Plays): Wild Sky, Embargo & Outrage Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsCrossings (NHB Modern Plays) Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsBogboy (NHB Modern Plays) Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsRaging: Wild Sky: The Rising Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
Related to Raging
Related ebooks
Raging: Wild Sky: The Rising Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsRaging: Embargo: The War of Independence Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsRaging: Three Plays/Seven Years of Warfare in Ireland (NHB Modern Plays): Wild Sky, Embargo & Outrage Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA Few Men Faithful: A Kavanagh Story I Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA Storm in Flanders: The Ypres Salient, 1914–1918: Tragedy and Triumph on the Western Front Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Seven: The Lives and Legacies of the Founding Fathers of the Irish Republic Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Women At War 1914-91: Voices of the Twentieth Century Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Catherine Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Story of the Highland Regiments Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsExploded Identity: A Saga of the Halifax Explosion Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsDawn's Early Light Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Colonel Thorndyke's Secret Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsLife of Her Most Gracious Majesty the Queen: Biographical Account of Queen Victoria Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Glorious Madness – Tales of the Irish and the Great War: First-hand accounts of Irish men and women in the First World War Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsOdd Man Out Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Trumpet-Major by Thomas Hardy (Illustrated) Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Life of Her Majesty Queen Victoria Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsÉamon de Valera: A Will to Power Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Dreaming Suburb Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Fire Along the Frontier: Great Battles of the War of 1812 Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Bravo of London: And ‘The Bunch of Violets’ Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsFoul Deeds & Suspicious Deaths In Dublin Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Siege of Loyalty House: A Story of the English Civil War Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Ulster, Ireland and the Somme: War Memorials and Battlefield Pilgrimages Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsRhapsody In Stephens Green: And The Insect Play Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThey Did Not Grow Old: Teenage Conscripts on the Western Front 1918 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Trail of the Hawk Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsPeterloo: The Story of the Manchester Massacre Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Story of Irving Berlin Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Irish Brigade, 1670–1745: The Wild Geese in French Service Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
Performing Arts For You
Becoming Free Indeed: My Story of Disentangling Faith from Fear Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Star Wars: Book of Lists Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Complete Sherlock Holmes Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Quite Nice and Fairly Accurate Good Omens Script Book: The Script Book Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Lucky Dog Lessons: From Renowned Expert Dog Trainer and Host of Lucky Dog: Reunions Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Romeo and Juliet Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Wuthering Heights Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Unsheltered: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Storyworthy: Engage, Teach, Persuade, and Change Your Life through the Power of Storytelling Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Hamlet Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Trial Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Hollywood's Dark History: Silver Screen Scandals Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Science of Storytelling: Why Stories Make Us Human and How to Tell Them Better Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Diamond Eye: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Confessions of a Prairie Bitch: How I Survived Nellie Oleson and Learned to Love Being Hated Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Coreyography: A Memoir Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Our Town: A Play in Three Acts Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Fifth Mountain: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Mash: A Novel About Three Army Doctors Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5For colored girls who have considered suicide/When the rainbow is enuf Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Robin Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5I'm Your Huckleberry: A Memoir Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Whale / A Bright New Boise Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Strange Loop Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Art of Dramatic Writing: Its Basis in the Creative Interpretation of Human Motives Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The World Turned Upside Down: Finding the Gospel in Stranger Things Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Woman Is No Man: A Read with Jenna Pick Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5As You Wish: Inconceivable Tales from the Making of The Princess Bride Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Dolls House Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Reviews for Raging
0 ratings0 reviews
Book preview
Raging - Deirdre Kinahan
Deirdre Kinahan
OUTRAGE
The Civil War
NICK HERN BOOKS
London
www.nickhernbooks.co.uk
Contents
Introduction
Dedication
Original Production
Characters
Outrage
About the Author
Copyright and Performing Rights Information
Introduction
Deirdre Kinahan
Three plays; seven years of warfare in Ireland; and my own fifty-three years of fascination with the bloody birth of our nation.
I grew up in the shadow of one of the major players in the 1916 revolution, Padraig Pearse. I used to play in the grounds of his mother’s house, racing across the fields and climbing the bizarre follies that dot the parklands of what was his extraordinarily progressive Gaelic school at the turn of the century: St Enda’s, Rathfarnham. I literally lived ten minutes’ walk from his home. I used to cycle along the stony paths through the woods of the grounds, play roly-poly on the small hill next to the old classrooms, peer in the window at the old desks and dusters, wondering ‘What was it all like back then?’ I was always one for ‘What was it all like back then?’! When my young friends wanted to play Red Rover or rounders, I might suggest a game of Henry VIII killing all his wives, or Anne Devlin refusing to rat out Robert Emmet when captured in Kilmainham Jail. The centuries always disappeared for me, and the stories grew and grew in my imagination. So to have a voice in Ireland’s commemoration of her revolution is honestly one of the greatest privileges and the greatest thrills of my writing career.
I was, however, initially wary of the ‘history’ play. It is a tricky beast. It can be didactic, overloaded with information or worse still… boring! So when Meath County Council asked me to write a play inspired by the events of the 1916 Easter Rising I was both delighted and a little nervous. Considering every Irish household has a story of brutal murder, deliberate starvation by local English landlords, or Granny hiding guns in her knickers to keep them safe from British soldiers, I wondered how Irish households might react to the actual truth of the period.
Similarly, there is the tragic reality of continued warfare in Northern Ireland; a rump state created in the midst of that time; and then, of course, Ireland’s strong culture of celebrity historians, professional historians, amateur historians, extremely vocal historians who might take great offence at the free imaginings of a playwright dancing on their turf! But I have always believed one has to put fear in one’s pocket when writing anything for public consumption so off I danced, sporting for a good old jig with Ireland’s ghosts.
***
Wild Sky was the first play – and where I learned how to tackle history in my own way. The play is pure fiction, but like all art it grows out of real human experience, human passion, human story. It is my attempt to turn back the clock, to walk the roads, to feel the heat, and dream the dreams that brought about Easter 1916. It is a play about radicalisation, what draws the young to revolution, what brings about the scream for change. Written through the prism of three ordinary, young, rural Irish poor, it is as much a love story as it is a comment on the time, and for me an homage to the very real ideals that took root having blown in from troubled Europe on Ireland’s ‘wild sky’.
The title comes from a poem by another neighbour, this time in my adopted county of Meath, Francis Ledwidge – poet, volunteer, amateur actor, socialist, lover, road-builder and republican – who inexplicably joined the British Army despite his nationalist credentials, only to be blown apart in the Battle of Passchendaele in 1917 during the First World War. Ledwidge wrote the poem for his good friend, teacher and playwright Thomas MacDonagh, one of the Irish leaders executed with Padraig Pearse after 1916.
He shall not hear the bittern cry
In the wild sky, where he is lain,
Nor voices of the sweeter birds,
Above the wailing of the rain…
The story of Francis Ledwidge became the bedrock of Mikey’s experience in my play, and the story of another local woman, Kathleen McKenna, inspired the character of Josie. A neighbour told me in a chat: ‘There was a fella apparently from out your way that fought in the GPO and then walked home, the whole way home, and was never arrested, just