Women are still encouraged to ‘marry well’, to make a good match

I went to see an excellent production of Sive in the Gaiety Theatre recently. Written by John B Keane in the 1950s, it tells the story of a teenage girl who is sold into marriage with a much older, albeit wealthy man, and is one of my favourite plays, writes Louise O’Neill.

I first saw it as a child in 1994, in St Mary’s Hall in Rossmore as part of the Kilmeen Drama festival. I remember sitting on the one of the long, wooden benches at the front with all the other children, packets of Taytos in hand, staring at the stage in shock at the story that was unfolding before me. I’ve seen Sive multiple times since, but the production in the Gaiety was the first time that I had heard an audience find the play so hilariously funny.

They were almost giddy, something I found jarring as Sive has been seared into my brain as a deeply disturbing piece of theatre.