John B Keane’s classic tragedy Sive returns to Abbey stage

As John B Keane’s classic tragedy Sive returns to the Abbey stage, his family hope that two of his unseen plays will also be produced, writes Pádraic Killeen

IT is 55 years since John B Keane’s play Sive premiered in Walsh’s Hall in Listowel, Co Kerry. It was a modest debut for a play that was destined to become a landmark of 20th century Irish drama. Keane, a young publican, had sent the play to the Abbey Theatre only to have it returned without comment by the Abbey’s then director, Ernest Blythe. Instead, it fell to Listowel Drama Group, an amateur company, to take on Sive and to make history with it.

Billy Keane, the late writer’s eldest child, was only six months old at the time but he was caught up in the whole thing just the same.