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The Shadow of a Gunman
The Shadow of a Gunman is a play set during the Irish War of Independence. It centres on a building tenant who is mistaken for an IRA assassin.
76 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1923
About the author
Seán O'Casey
225 books96 followersSean O'Casey was born in 1880 and lived through a bitterly hard boyhood in a Dublin tenement house. He never went to school but received most of his education in the streets of Dublin, and taught himself to read at the age of fourteen. He was successively a newspaper-seller, docker, stone-breaker, railway-worker and builders' labourer. In 1913 he helped to organise the Irish Citizen Army which fought in the streets of Dublin, and at the same time he was learning his dramatic technique by reading Shakespeare and watching the plays of Dion Boucicault. His early works were performed at the Abbey Theatre, Dublin, and Lady Gregory made him welcome at Coole, but disagreement followed and after visiting America in the late thirties O'Casey settled in Devonshire. He lived there until his death in 1964, though still drawing the themes of many of his plays from the life he knew so well on the banks of the Liffey. Out of the ceaseless dramatic experimenting in his plays O'Casey created a flamboyance and versatility that sustain the impression of bigness of mind that is inseparable from his tragi-comic vision of life.
He was a major Irish dramatist and memoirist. A committed socialist, he was the first Irish playwright of note to write about the Dublin working classes.
He was a major Irish dramatist and memoirist. A committed socialist, he was the first Irish playwright of note to write about the Dublin working classes.
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Displaying 1 - 27 of 27 reviews
January 29, 2020
This is the fifth play O’Casey wrote, but the first to be performed. It is set in 1920, during the Irish War for Independence, and tells the story of thirty-year-old poet and tenement dweller Donal Devoren. His fellow tenants have decided he is an IRA gunman in hiding, they treat him with respect and ask for certain favors, and Donal rather enjoys living under the gunman’s "shadow," for he is a bit of Romantic. “His struggle through life has been a hard one,” O’Casey tells us, “and his efforts have been handicapped by an inherited and self-developed devotion to the might of design, the mystery of colour, and the belief in the redemption of all things by beauty everlasting.” More than anything else, however, he delights in the devotion of Minnie Powell, a pretty young thing who lives in his building and considers him a hero of the revolution.
O’Casey is still learning his craft here, and Gunman’s structure isn’t equal to that of his two subsequent masterpieces, Juno and the Paycock and The Plough and the Stars. Still it is a suspenseful and moving work, filled with eloquent Irish speech, a wealth of spot-on working class humor (both Catholic and Protestant), and a tragic conclusion that fills the viewer with a horror of violence and pity for the random losses of war.
On the subject of those losses, I would like to quote from the words of the pedlar Seamus Shields to his friend Donal Devoren:
It’s the civilians that suffer; when there’s an ambush they don’t know where to run. Shot in the back to save the British Empire, an’ shot in the breast to save the soul of Ireland. I’m a Nationalist meself, right enough—a Nationalist right enough, but all the same—I’m a Nationalist right enough; I believe in the freedom of Ireland, an’ that England has no right to be here, but I draw the line when I hear the gunmen blowin’ about dyin’ for the people, when it’s the people that are dyin’ for the gunmen! With all due respect to the gunmen, I don’t want them to die for me.
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March 31, 2021Irlanda Tiyatrosunun temasına -kaçınılmaz bir şekilde işlenen- İrlanda halk hareketinin bir fotoğraf karesini anlatan bu tiyatroda bütün olaylar birkaç kişi çerçevesinde küçük bir odada geçse de kitap vermek istediği tüm mesajları başarıyla verebilmiş. Nihayetinde bu kitap bir Silahşörün hikayesi değil. Adından da anlaşılabileceği gibi, bir silahşörün gölgesinin hikayesi.
Kahramanlarımız silahşör olmanın değil, silahşör zannedilmenin keyfini çıkarırken olaylar hiç beklemedikleri bir hal alacak; ve sürpriz bir sonla hikaye bitecektir bitmesine ama yazarın bu kahramanlarda tasvir ettiği kişilikler; aslında İrlanda hareketi ve bu süreçteki çatışmalardaki kimliklerin vücut bulmuş halleri. Öyle ya da böyle, fakirliğin, yalnızlığın ve korkaklığın çemberinde sıkışmış; hiçbir yere ait olamamış bu karakterler içgüdüleriyle hareket edecekler ve kendilerinden beklendiği ölçüde hayatta kalmanın derdine düşeceklerdir. Silah kapıya dayandığında büyük ve tumturaklı sözlerin tuzla buz olup ölüm korkusunun nasıl hissedildiğinin de bir resmidir.
IRA hakkında daha fazla bilgi edinmek isterseniz şu kitabı okuyabilirsiniz:
Kuzey İrlanda ve Ira Silahlı Mücadeleden Siyasal Çözüme
İrlanda Tiyatro Hareketinden devam etmek isterseniz ise:
Lady Gregory
W.B. Yeats
Kahramanlarımız silahşör olmanın değil, silahşör zannedilmenin keyfini çıkarırken olaylar hiç beklemedikleri bir hal alacak; ve sürpriz bir sonla hikaye bitecektir bitmesine ama yazarın bu kahramanlarda tasvir ettiği kişilikler; aslında İrlanda hareketi ve bu süreçteki çatışmalardaki kimliklerin vücut bulmuş halleri. Öyle ya da böyle, fakirliğin, yalnızlığın ve korkaklığın çemberinde sıkışmış; hiçbir yere ait olamamış bu karakterler içgüdüleriyle hareket edecekler ve kendilerinden beklendiği ölçüde hayatta kalmanın derdine düşeceklerdir. Silah kapıya dayandığında büyük ve tumturaklı sözlerin tuzla buz olup ölüm korkusunun nasıl hissedildiğinin de bir resmidir.
IRA hakkında daha fazla bilgi edinmek isterseniz şu kitabı okuyabilirsiniz:
Kuzey İrlanda ve Ira Silahlı Mücadeleden Siyasal Çözüme
İrlanda Tiyatro Hareketinden devam etmek isterseniz ise:
Lady Gregory
W.B. Yeats
October 31, 2022
3.5 stars, a play full of useless men with a very powerful second act. Justice for Minnie Powell. Read for class.
September 13, 2007
Not a particularly bad book. However i think they're pushing it a little by using it for part of the British Curriculum for Drama.
Unless it is studied relentlessly this doesn't seem to be the kind of book that someone will give a second glance.
I loved how involved the history of Ireland was in this play. Sean O'Casey weaves a 'waiting for godot' kind of tale as nothing seems to happen. Davoren and Seamus just discuss random things and hang around their room. However the commotion on the streets had a habit of spilling into the tenement building, this was the plot device driving this unforgivingly slow play.
Again i say, not a particularly bad book. But just don't do this to yourself. Read Shakespeare if you want to read a 'good' play.
Unless it is studied relentlessly this doesn't seem to be the kind of book that someone will give a second glance.
I loved how involved the history of Ireland was in this play. Sean O'Casey weaves a 'waiting for godot' kind of tale as nothing seems to happen. Davoren and Seamus just discuss random things and hang around their room. However the commotion on the streets had a habit of spilling into the tenement building, this was the plot device driving this unforgivingly slow play.
Again i say, not a particularly bad book. But just don't do this to yourself. Read Shakespeare if you want to read a 'good' play.
February 1, 2018
O'Casey's toneelstukken duiken telkens weer magistraal en onnavolgbaar in het hart van authentiek Ierland, en zijn onweerstaanbaar, ook om te lezen, door de perfect gedoseerde regie-aanduidingen. Geen betere voorbereiding op een reis naar het groene eiland overigens. Van de weinige boeken die ik zou herlezen. En herlezen. O'Casey is de Christy Moore van het Ierse theater. Hou je meer van zijn broer Luka Bloom, lees dan veeleer (John Millington) Synge.
July 26, 2017
I saw this play performed in Dublin's Abbey Theatre in the late summer 2015. As a non-native english speaker I had a really hard time understanding the rough pronunciation. I did pick up a lot from the actors/actresses body language, but honestly I felt like I missed out on much of the story.
So today I came across this piece in a second hand book-shop and picked it up. Read it in about an hour and...turns out, I hadn't missed out on much.
I'm at loss at whether to say this play is too "internally written" plainly boring or just needs much, much more information for the reader to understand. Not to say I didn't like it, it just seems to me that I'd be better off knowing more of the setting around the area at that time. My thoughts exactly after seeing the production.
Whenever I read a theatre-piece, I always look for the human-aspect. I look for ways to identify with the material. If it isn't there I have a hard time enjoying the read.
In my opinion, Shadow of a Gunman lacks the recognizable timelessness situated in people in a compromising reality. O'Casey comes close, to mention the (whatever it is) between Donal and Minnie, but only enough to poke my interest.
I'm thinking of reading other pieces by O'Casey to compare. Maybe even re-read this one at some other time.
I'd wouldn't mind being wrong with my current opinion.
So today I came across this piece in a second hand book-shop and picked it up. Read it in about an hour and...turns out, I hadn't missed out on much.
I'm at loss at whether to say this play is too "internally written" plainly boring or just needs much, much more information for the reader to understand. Not to say I didn't like it, it just seems to me that I'd be better off knowing more of the setting around the area at that time. My thoughts exactly after seeing the production.
Whenever I read a theatre-piece, I always look for the human-aspect. I look for ways to identify with the material. If it isn't there I have a hard time enjoying the read.
In my opinion, Shadow of a Gunman lacks the recognizable timelessness situated in people in a compromising reality. O'Casey comes close, to mention the (whatever it is) between Donal and Minnie, but only enough to poke my interest.
I'm thinking of reading other pieces by O'Casey to compare. Maybe even re-read this one at some other time.
I'd wouldn't mind being wrong with my current opinion.
March 30, 2024
This play was an incredible read, flitting between the poignant and the absurd, the tragic and the comic. Based on the premise of mistaken identity, The Shadow of a Gunman follows the day of an idealistic poet in the tenements as his neighbors suspect his involvement with the Irish Republican Army (IRA).
What I enjoyed the most were the meditations on war, art, and maintaining appearances, which breathes life into the characters but also make you think more about the things we take for granted or don't spend that much thinking about. I was also excited to see how the women in this play were practical and independent, acting as a foil to the idealism and naivete of some of the male characters and challenging the prevailing notion of courage. O'Casey does a wonderful job preserving the authenticity of how characters speak and capturing their anxieties through the rhythm of words--this play was no exception. I hope I'll get to see it performed some day.
"You object to any one of them deliberately dying for you for fear that one of these days you might accidentally die for one of them."
"...I don't know much about the pearly glint off the morning dew, or the damask sweetness of the rare wild rose, or the subtle greenness of the serpent's eye--but I think a poet's claim to greatness depends upon his power to put passion in the common people."
What I enjoyed the most were the meditations on war, art, and maintaining appearances, which breathes life into the characters but also make you think more about the things we take for granted or don't spend that much thinking about. I was also excited to see how the women in this play were practical and independent, acting as a foil to the idealism and naivete of some of the male characters and challenging the prevailing notion of courage. O'Casey does a wonderful job preserving the authenticity of how characters speak and capturing their anxieties through the rhythm of words--this play was no exception. I hope I'll get to see it performed some day.
"You object to any one of them deliberately dying for you for fear that one of these days you might accidentally die for one of them."
"...I don't know much about the pearly glint off the morning dew, or the damask sweetness of the rare wild rose, or the subtle greenness of the serpent's eye--but I think a poet's claim to greatness depends upon his power to put passion in the common people."
June 24, 2019
Seán O'Casey's The Shadow of a Gunman is a play about how the Troubles in Ireland affected people who liked to be thought of as Irish Republican Army (IRA) gunmen. Specifically, the play tells of a poet and peddler living in a tenement in which people suspect that one or both of them is an IRA gunman. The tragedy is that some of the other residents, in their own way, are more brave than the poet and peddler. The suspense of the play is in the fact that we suspect that one of them really is in the IRA.
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January 13, 2024هذه هي المسرحية الخامسة التي يكتبها أوكاسي، لكنها الأولى التي يتم تأديتها. تدور أحداث الفيلم في عام 1920، أثناء حرب الاستقلال الأيرلندية، ويحكي قصة الشاعر البالغ من العمر ثلاثين عامًا وساكن المسكن دونال ديفورين. قرر زملاؤه المستأجرون أنه مسلح من الجيش الجمهوري الإيرلندي مختبئ، ويعاملونه باحترام ويطلبون خدمات معينة، ويستمتع دونال بالعيش تحت "ظل" المسلح، لأنه رومانسي بعض الشيء. يقول لنا أوكيسي: "لقد كان كفاحه في الحياة صعبًا، وقد أعاقت جهوده بسبب التفاني الموروث والمتطور ذاتيًا لقوة التصميم، وغموض اللون، والإيمان بالخلاص". من كل شيء بالجمال الأبدي." ومع ذلك، فهو يستمتع أكثر من أي شيء آخر بإخلاص ميني باول، وهي شابة جميلة تعيش في مبناه وتعتبره بطلاً للثورة.
August 28, 2020
During the Irish War of Independence in Dublin a poet is mistaken for an IRA gunman, something he does nothing to discourage when it wins him the affections of a young woman, which brings trouble down on the residents of the tenement building he resides in.
Roles I'd like to play. Donal Davoren or Seamus Shields.
Roles I'd like to play. Donal Davoren or Seamus Shields.
November 8, 2017
i read this with the play reading group i belong to, earlier this year and once I got into it i really enjoyed it. it has its dark side, being set in the period of the Irish troubles in the 1920s, but it was very well done and quite sad as well
May 7, 2018
أيرلندا تعيش في خوف ، تحت حرب حرب الاستقلال. لكن هناك شعور بالرومانسية أيضاً ، حيث يُنظر إلى مسلحي الجيش الجمهوري الأيرلندي في بعض الدوائر كمقاتلين من الحرية الشجاعة ويتهم شاعر يكافح بتحويل أعمالهم الدامية إلى أفعال من الجمال.
May 23, 2019
Incredibly funny & then tragically sad. Relevant today & although very specific to Ireland when under British rule, which the North STILL is, the issues present are universal to any community experiencing widespread poverty & police brutality at the hands of an oppressive governmnent.
December 7, 2020
Set in a tenement in Dublin, this play is a tragicomedy set in during the war for Irish independence. Donal Davoren and Seumas Shields are two roommates in the tenement and in a case of mistaken identity, Donal is mistaken for am IRA assassin and trouble ensues from there.
March 1, 2024
#ReadingIrelandMonth24
Yes! It is that time of the year when we celebrated great Irish writers, poets and playwrights!
Sean O'Casey ...controversial and insightful!
My thoughts
Yes! It is that time of the year when we celebrated great Irish writers, poets and playwrights!
Sean O'Casey ...controversial and insightful!
My thoughts
March 29, 2019
Powerful and poignant.
June 17, 2022
A very important narrative within the history of Ireland, particularly in regard to their relationship with England. Slightly too short to really grasp a connection with the characters.
June 30, 2022
A great and tragic play.
August 10, 2023
minnie deserved better
May 19, 2017
I struggled with this at first and think somethings might have gone over my head. I enjoyed the hard hitting ending - if it meant heroes and fighters are not always what we expect and perhaps more modest people pick up the woeful tab at the end of the day.
One of the characters is Donal Daveron, a struggling 'want to be - poet,' moving into a slum in a poor district of Dublin. He has a roommate named Seumus. The other people of the block suspect Donal of being a Republican Volunteer fighter. Donal, who is not such a person, does little to refute such beliefs as I think it appeals to the romantic side of his nature. His friend Seumus, however, has a friend who is of such persuasion.
When Crown forces in the form of Auxiliaries raid the place after an incident with Seumus' rebel friend all sorts of things come into play with Donal and Seumus needing help to take suspicion away from them. Donal is helped by a young woman who is infatuated with him. A lady called Minnie Powell.
I would highly recommend this story. I thought the drama that unfolded towards the end of this tale was very dramatic indeed.
One of the characters is Donal Daveron, a struggling 'want to be - poet,' moving into a slum in a poor district of Dublin. He has a roommate named Seumus. The other people of the block suspect Donal of being a Republican Volunteer fighter. Donal, who is not such a person, does little to refute such beliefs as I think it appeals to the romantic side of his nature. His friend Seumus, however, has a friend who is of such persuasion.
When Crown forces in the form of Auxiliaries raid the place after an incident with Seumus' rebel friend all sorts of things come into play with Donal and Seumus needing help to take suspicion away from them. Donal is helped by a young woman who is infatuated with him. A lady called Minnie Powell.
I would highly recommend this story. I thought the drama that unfolded towards the end of this tale was very dramatic indeed.
May 30, 2016
I can't quite remember reading a play where I felt there was so much potential to be a truly "great work," but that falls short on just about every level. If some of the fluff had been cut out, this would have made a gripping one-act play. If characters would have been further developed (especially Minnie) with a greater build-up to the violent ending, this would have made a memorable three act play. As it stands, the final product seems both too long AND too short. Even worse, it's either a drama with too much humor, or a comedy with a seriously depressing ending. As Seumas says in Act I: “That’s the Irish People all over - they treat a serious thing as a joke and a joke as a serious thing.” Although I'm not Irish, I couldn't help but find most of the events in this play funny, even when they were meant to be serious, from the cartoonish Black and Tans to the almost farcical attempt to stash bombs. As such, this was still an entertaining play, even if it didn't work for me. Since this was only O'Casey's first play, I'll give him another shot and read the other two plays in the Dublin trilogy at the very least.
December 1, 2007
نمایشنامه به وقایع سال ۱۹۲۰ ایرلند مرتبط است و منازعات میان ارتش جمهوری خواه ایرلند و نظامیان بریتانیا. در سال 1916 ملی گرایان ایرلندی در دوبلین، قیام عید پاک را ترتیب می دهند که این شورش هرچند با شکست مواجه می شود، موج مخالفتهای گسترده علیه حکومت بریتانیا در ایرلند را به راه می اندازد. در سال 1919 مجلس ایرلند، حکومت این کشور را «جمهوری» اعلام کرد، و متعاقب آن 3 سال جنگ بین ارتش جمهوری خواه ایرلند و بریتانیا در گرفت. (+)
وقایع نمایشنامه در دو پرده و در فاصله چند ساعت یک روز ماه مه ۱۹۲۰ در خانه ای اجاره نشین روی می دهد. دانل داورن، شوماس شیلدز، تامی اونز، آدلفوس گرگسن، خانم گرگسن و مینی پاول ساکنان این خانه کوچک اند. از میان آنان تامی اونز، کسی است که فعالیت های مخفیانه ای علیه دولت بریتانیا انجام می دهد و کیف پر از بمب دست ساز اوست که نقطه اوج داستان نمایشنامه را می سازد.
وقایع نمایشنامه در دو پرده و در فاصله چند ساعت یک روز ماه مه ۱۹۲۰ در خانه ای اجاره نشین روی می دهد. دانل داورن، شوماس شیلدز، تامی اونز، آدلفوس گرگسن، خانم گرگسن و مینی پاول ساکنان این خانه کوچک اند. از میان آنان تامی اونز، کسی است که فعالیت های مخفیانه ای علیه دولت بریتانیا انجام می دهد و کیف پر از بمب دست ساز اوست که نقطه اوج داستان نمایشنامه را می سازد.
February 1, 2011
I liked the play a lot: but it didn't live up to my high expectations after "Red Roses For Me." Still, this play was good enough (and that play was great enough), to get me through the other two O'Casey plays I bought. Best part of this play is the allusion to these excellent lines in the Rubiyat of Omar Khayyam:
Ah, Love, could you and I with Fate conspire
To grasp the sad state of things entire
Would we not shatter it to bits - and then -
Remould it nearer to the Heart's desire!
Ah, Love, could you and I with Fate conspire
To grasp the sad state of things entire
Would we not shatter it to bits - and then -
Remould it nearer to the Heart's desire!
November 7, 2007
این نمایش نامه ی شون اوکیسی با نام "در پوست شیر" توسط اسماعیل خویی ترجمه شده و توسط انتشارات رز در سال 1350 منتشر شده است.
July 24, 2015
A deft metaphor for the predicament ordinary people of all biases and allegiances found themselves in when caught between fanatics and oppressors.
November 30, 2015
An excellent story revolving around the interactions of a few choice denizens of a tenement in 1920's Ireland.
December 30, 2023
I’d give this three and a half if I could, wasn’t my favourite of the Dublin trilogy but still a classic from O’Casey.
Displaying 1 - 27 of 27 reviews