OVERVIEW

• Playwright

  Harry Sinton Gibson 

• Setting

  The sitting room behind the shop of Joseph Cunningham, in the town of Cloughmany in Northern Ireland, in November 1930.

• Synopsis

  J.C Cunningham, shopkeeper, turns hard and bitter when his father bequeathes the substantial family fortune to his sister Sarah, and leaves the shop business only to him. Determined to make sons George and Dick upstanding members of the community and the Calvinist church to which they belong, he thwarts George's ambition to become a horse-trainer, and decides that Dick will become a minister. As each rebels in their own way, wife Mary quietly despairs, and as the years go by the house becomes one of misery. J.C.'s refusal to change results in the slow collapse of the business, but as the facts of this emerge, Mary finds her voice. Through her efforts, a glimmer of hope presents itself for the future.

• Play Type

  Plays General
  

  Number Of Acts

  Full-Length

Cast size

• Male

  9

• Female

  4

• Total

  13

Original Production

• Date of First Production

  04 September 1950

• Producer

  Produced by Ulster Group Theatre

• Original Venue

  Group Theatre
  

Source Of Information

Information for this entry has come from the original production programme and the printed play script, held at the Theatre and Performing Arts Archive of the Linen Hall Library, Belfast.