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Books

Grove Press
Grove Press
Grove Press

Complete Plays

The Quare Fellow; The Hostage; Richard's Cork Leg; Moving Out; A Garden Party; The Big House

by Brendan Behan Introduction by Alan Simpson
  • Imprint Grove Paperback
  • Page Count 384
  • Publication Date August 01, 1974
  • ISBN-13 978-0-8021-3070-9
  • Dimensions 5.38" x 8.25"
  • US List Price $19.00

About The Book

This volume contains everything Behan wrote in dramatic form in English. First come the three famous full-length plays: The Quare Fellow, set in an Irish prison, is ‘something very like a masterpiece” (John Russell Taylor); The Hostage, set in a Dublin lodging-house of doubtful repute, ‘shouts, sings, thunders and stamps with life . . . a masterpiece” (Harold Hobson); and Richard’s Cork Leg, set largely in a graveyard, is nevertheless “a joyous celebration of life” (Michael Billington). There follow three little-known one-act plays originally written for radio and all intensely autobiographical: Moving Out, A Garden Party and The Big House.

The Introduction, by Alan Simpson, who knew Behan well and first directed his work on stage, provides the essential biographical details as well as candid insights into Behan’s working methods and his political allegiances. Also included in the volume is a wide-ranging bibliography.