Memories of John B Keane's early plays in Cork ahead of 'Many Young Men of 20' revival

Many Young Men Of 20 is being revived at the Everyman, so Jo Kerrigan looks back on the original Cork-Kerry collaborations that saw the Listowel master’s plays performed on Leeside.

They’re reviving an old Keane classic at the Everyman Palace in Cork this month. Many Young Men of Twenty was premiered in Cork 56 years ago by the Southern Theatre Group, which brought virtually all John B’s plays to world notice.

At the time, it was fashionable for those who saw themselves as theatrical intellectuals to look down on this new rural voice, regarding it as little more than peasant melodrama. How things have changed. Keane is now regarded, and rightly so, as a master of his craft, able like Shakespeare to capture unerringly the human condition and human character.