OVERVIEW

• Playwright

  Arthur Power 

• Setting

  Interior of a Slum in Dublin. Period - 1724.

• Synopsis

  The play deals with the Wood ha'pence episode, or at least a fictional story thereof, where a young slum-dweller, Mary-Bridget, comes to know the identity of the infamous author of the Drapier Letters (Dean Swift) and is tragically killed as soldiers storm her room in search of the man himself.

• Play Type

  Plays General
  

  Number Of Acts

  One Act

Cast size

• Male

  4

• Female

  5

• Total

  9

Original Production

• Date of First Production

  22 August 1927

• Production Notes

  "One of the chief wants of Ireland in that day (1724) was that of small currency adapted to the daily transactions of life...and a patent for supplying Ireland with a copper coinage was accorded to William Wood on such terms that the profit accruing from the difference between the intrinsic and the nominal value of the coins, about 40%, was mainly divided between him and George I's favourite Duchess of Kendal....Swift now had his opportunity, and the famous six letters signed M.B. Drapier soon set Ireland in flame. Every effort was used to discover the author, or rather to obtain legal evidence against the author, whom, Walpole was assured, it would have taken ten thousand men to apprehend. None could be procured; the public passion swept everything before it; the patent was cancelled, Wood was compensated by a pension, and Swift was raised to a height of popularity which he retained for the rest of his life."

• 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 from press cuttings.