OVERVIEW

• Playwright

  Austin Clarke 

• Setting

  The 'House of the Fire' in Kildare

• Synopsis

  A novice nun, Attracta, sees a vision of Absalom, hanging by his hair. Against the rules of the convent, she is prompted to regrow her own hair; she also neglects the tending of St Brigid's flame, kept for centuries by the convent's nuns.

• Play Type

  Plays General
  

  Number Of Acts

  One Act

• Cast Notes

  Listed in the Dramatis personae are Nun, Novice, Abbess and Sisters of the Community.

Original Production

• Date of First Production

  1941

• Original Venue

  Abbey Theatre/Amharclann na Mainistreach
  

• Irish Premiere Notes

  First performed by the Dublin Verse-Speaking Society on the Peacock stage. Later revived at the Abbey Theatre by the Lyric Theatre Company. Premiered by the School of Speech Training and Drama in Edinburgh in June 1932. Also performed at the British Drama League Festival in 1936 and at the Oxford Festival of Spoken Poetry, 1938.

Source Of Information