OVERVIEW

• Playwright

  John Guinan 

• Setting

  A room in a lonely farmhouse.

• Notes

  'Black Oliver' was privately published by the author in 1927. As the print run only came to fifty, relatively few copies survived, though one can be viewed at the National Library. An Irish translation by Séan Mac Gaibhneáin was published by An Gúm in 1935, but appears never to have been performed.

• Synopsis

  A man is working on a book about a sinister figure of local tradition, Black Oliver. He is accompanied by his friend who is illustrating the book and they are tended to by a servant, Skelp, who claims that the titular blackguard was merely a figment of his great-grandfather's imagination.

• Play Type

  Plays General
  

  Number Of Acts

  One Act

Cast size

• Male

  3

• Total

  3

Original Production

• Date of First Production

  16 May 1927

• 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.