OVERVIEW

• Playwright

  T.C. Murray 

• Notes

  Murray wrote 'The Briery Gap' in 1915. He found this play very troubling. He worried about public opinion given the subject matter. In a second printing in 1926, Joan does not commit suicide; but merely slumps on a rock near the river. The play was given several public readings before the 1948 Abbey production; an experimental production in the Peacock in 1973, directed by Jim Sheridan, was framed in the context of contemporary debates about the availability of contraception and the plight of unmarried mothers in Ireland.

• Synopsis

  The play finds young Joan pregnant out of wedlock by Morgan. They have been denounced from the pulpit by Father Coyne that morning. Joan fears that it is “the talk o’ the world by now.” She implores Morgan to marry her immediately. Morgan, being an orphan, is waiting for an uncle to endow him with property rights. Father Coyne meets with Joan’s parents and Morgan’s uncle, and tells the young couple they must marry. Morgan’s priorities are a secure future and he abandons Joan to emigrate. With no hope left for a respectable life, Joan drowns herself in the nearby river.

• Play Type

  Plays General
  

  Number Of Acts

  One Act

Cast size

• Male

  2

• Female

  1

• Total

  3

Original Production

• Date of First Production

  25 October 1948

• Production Notes

  Produced by The Abbey Experimental Theatre Company

• Producer

  Produced by Abbey Theatre/Amharclann na Mainistreach

• Original Venue

  Abbey Theatre/Amharclann na Mainistreach
  

Source Of Information

The information for this entry was taken from the original production programme and Ireland's Abbey Theatre: A History 1899-1951 by Lennox Robinson. The synopsis and additional notes were provided by Martin Munroe.