Sam Holmes' Dramatic Re-Imagining Of O'Casey's Masterpiece

Sean O'Casey's harrowing drama about the 1916 Republic Of Ireland Easter Rising comes to Hammersmith's Lyric Theatre in co-production with Dublin's Abbey Theatre. Transported to a present-day tower block building, the provocative and poignant commentary on social justice poses questions still relevant today. Olivier Award winning director Sam Holmes stays loyal to O'Casey's writing but delivers a high-energy, radical retelling of the modern Irish masterpiece.

Overcrowding and poverty plague a tenement block where residents include consumptive children and prostitutes, as well as Jack Clitheroe, a bricklayer and former soldier in the Irish Citizen Army, and his wife Nora. The marital discord between them is heightened when Jack is called to re-enlist and puts his the Army before his wife, ultimately the sowing seeds for a far greater tragedy.