IRISH PLAYWRIGHT.

Waikato Times, Volume 100, Issue 16817, 8 June 1926, Page 6

IRISH PLAYWRIGHT.

HIS STRUGGLES AND SUCCESS. Sean O'Casey, the remarkable Irish playwright, who, until three months ago, was a labourer, recently arrived in London for the first time in his life. He had never before crossed the Irish Channel, and he had come expressly, to see his play, "June and the Paycock," at the Royalty Theatre. "My first impression of London has been one of sleeplessness," he told a reporter. "I am not accustomed to a big hotel, and everything was so quiet last night that 1 listened for the familiar noises of the tenement quarter in which I live in Dublin. An author should live in the atmosphere of the places and people about whom he writes. Then only can he hope to get a true perspective. "Thus 1 write about people of tenement regions, and I lived, and still live in a single room in a quarter like to that I have tried to describe.

"Whatever literary attainments I have came from a desire for knowledge. Tho trouble with our modern system is, as it seems to me, that we study too much. Education suffers from too much study. What is more important is a true perception of the relation of learning with art and litcr"Modern civilisation must learn that all intelligence docs not belong to tho middle or upper classes. The working classes have their share, and I think the time will come when everybody, son of a cook, son of a millionaire, will go to the same schools.

His First Book.

"In my real life I regret nothing, not even the hardship of manual labour by day and the endeavour to keep awake at night to teach myself to read and write. In Dublin there is a blessed institution—a book barrow. When I was young I used to save my twopences and threepences and go down to buy school books. In my little attic I learned grammar, and I knew that a noun was the name of a place or person, but it took me weeks to master the adjective, for I could not understand what it meant to qualify a noun. "In those days my vocabulary was only disyllabic. The first serious book 1 ever bought was a shilling copy of Shakespeare, and I learnt 'Hamlet,' 'Macbeth,' and 'Julius Ceasar' by heart. "But reading Shakespeare did not make me a playwright. That came about in this way. I was a member of a Gaelic or national club, which had for its original object the teaching of Irish and the encouragement of the hurley game. One day they decided to produce a play, but because they had no money the plays they tackled were very uninteresting. Writes First Play. "By this time I could write a little, and 1 was presumptious enough to suggest that I write a play myself. It was a poor two-act affair called the 'Frost and the Flower," but because it reflected on the family life of two or three members it was rejected, and I sent it to the Abbey Theatre, where it remained for six months before it was returned, with an encouraging letter. "This stimulated mc to write another play called "The Harvest Festival." It suffered the same fate, and I wrote another, 'The Crimson and the Tricolour,' a Labour play, which my friends at the Abbey kept 12 months, decided to produce, and then, at the last minute, returned. "Twelve' months is a long time, and I had employed it in writing another piece called "The Shadow of a Gunman,' and this was produced at last in 1923. I was elated, and began to write fantasies on politics. One of these, 'Kathleen Listens-in,' was done al the Abbey, but it was so badly received that 1 went home almost heartbroken, without yoing behind even to thank the artists. And that same night in my attic I sat down to write 'June and the Paycock,' and here I am in London fulfilling an ambition of mine." What Mr O'Casey fears more than anything is the proposed play-censor-ship in Dublin, which a Free State Government is considering. Hitherto the drama there has been unfettered in its expression. "The change," Mr O'Casey added, "will be fatal to Irish drama; first, because it is bad for any drama, and next, because there's no chance of any two persons in Dublin agreeing about it."