The Field

Synopsis

Keane's violent yet tender masterpiece tells the story of Bull McCabe, one of the most famous characters in Irish literature, and his fight to resist the changes forced on his small rural community by a rapidly changing Ireland. "This is a parish in which you understand hunger...for food...for home...for love...for children. These things are good. But there is also a hunger for land. Are you prepare to kill for land?"

Our Review:

1 June 2006

Overshadowed by his compatriots Brian Friel and Tom Murphy, John B Keane (1928-2002) is no less a playwright of the Irish landscape, although recognition came late; his current high reputation dates only from the late 1980s, by which time his work was mostly done.

The Field (1966) is a tremendous drama in a small village community where the ill-tempered farmer Bull McCabe defends, literally to the death, his rights of ownership on a four-acre field he has been renting from a poor widow.

When the field is put up for auction by the local publican (Keane himself owned and ran a pub in his native town of Listowel, north Kerry, for many years), an outsider joins the bidding, spoiling McCabe’s plan to undercut the reserve price of £800.

Events take a nasty turn for the worse on a dark night of retribution, and bellowing Bull’s hold on the village becomes even more sinister, despite the fire and brimstone sermon of a bishop and the best efforts of th...

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Latest User Review

194.106.157.13) - 22 June 2006:

The Field is no doubt a very imotive play. The intimatcy of the Trycycle coupled with a powerful cast has made this production one of the must see drama's on at the moment. JB Keane's work is ageless....

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