Unpublished Keane plays uncovered

ALMOST a year after his death, John B Keane is still springing literary surprises — just in time to generate theatrical debate at Listowel Writers’ Week.

Two unpublished plays by the famous writer have been discovered in his study and they will be staged when his widow, Mary, decides the time is right.

The plays were both written several decades ago and deal with controversial themes. ‘Piseog,’ which was written in the mid-1960s after ‘The Field’, tells the story of the intimidation of a poor and superstitious family.

According to his son Billy, John B decided not to have the play staged at the time due to the sensitive nature of the play’s theme. “My father was conscious that some people might be recognisable and he did not want to hurt people who were still alive.”

The second play, ‘Vigilantes’, is about the rough justice meted out to GAA players who defied the organisation’s notorious ban on playing ‘foreign games’ like soccer. Again, the playwright felt that the timing was not right to have the play put on stage. “He was conscious that it might not be right to put it on at a time of reconciliation.”

While he was famous for not worrying about public opinion, Billy explained that, as his father battled cancer for the last nine years of his life, John B’s appetite for controversy waned. “He wasn’t really up to it.”

In his early years he was not averse to courting controversy and he played a major role in the Language Freedom Movement in the 1960s, which campaigned against compulsory Irish in schools. The Abbey, famously did not recognise the raw power of his play, Sive, initially rejecting it in 1959. The Listowel drama group performed it at Walsh’s Ballroom in the town and it went on to win the All-Ireland Amateur Drama Festival.

In June that year it was performed at the Abbey, as was the practice for winners of the All-Ireland Amateur Drama Festival. It played to packed houses and a new production of it is currently on tour. Another Keane classic, The Field, is also currently in a touring production.

The ‘Piseog’ script was discovered recently by an archivist who was sorting out John B’s papers in his study above the family pub in Listowel. When the material is sorted and catalogued, it will be shared between Trinity College, which awarded him an honorary doctorate, and the Writers’ Museum in Listowel.

Two of John B’s plays, The Matchmaker and The One Way Ticket will be performed in Listowel this month. A book of poems written towards the end of his life will be launched at Writers’ Week which opens on May 28.