The Field by John B Keane – Liffey Players

I will be playing Tadgh McCabe directed by Tanya Wolfe. This will be going up sometime in fall at The Pumphouse in the Victor Mitchel Theatre.

Rugged individualist Bull McCabe has spent five hard years of labour cultivating a small plot of rented land, nurturing it from barren rock into a fertile field. When the owner of the field decides to auction it, He believes that he has a claim to the land. The McCabes intimidate most of the townspeople out of bidding in the auction, to the chagrin of auctioneer Mick Flanagan, but Galwayman William Dee arrives from England, where he has lived for many years, with a plan to cover the field with concrete and extract gravel from the adjacent river. An encounter between Dee and the McCabes ends in Dee’s death and a cover-up.

Characters

  • Thady “The Bull” McCabe – The play’s main character and anti-hero, Bull is as strong as an ox – and just as powerful. Having grazed and rented Maggie Butler’s field for five years, along with his son Tadgh, Bull believes he is the rightful owner.
  • Tadgh McCabe – Bull’s son and faithful companion, who too shares his father’s passion of land.
  • “The Bird” O’Donnell – A mischievous calf buyer and a regular at Flanagan’s pub, Bird is an acquaintance of The McCabes.
  • Mick Flanagan – The local publican and auctioneer, Mick is mendacious and sly and is another acquaintance of the Mccabes, who attempts to help them secure the field.
  • Maimie Flanagan – Mick’s younger wife and the mother of his nine children. Maimie is flirtatious and charming and has a bitter, strained relationship with her husband, whilst maintaining a strong relationship with her eldest son Leamy.
  • Maggie Butler – An elderly widow, who has rented her late husband’s field to The McCabes for the past five years. Maggie is frail and destitute and wishes to put the field up for public auction, much to the McCabe’s disgust.
  • William Dee – A young Galway man, who has been living in England for twelve years. Considered an “outsider”, William decides to bid against the Bull McCabe for Maggie Butler’s field.
  • Leamy Flanagan – Mick and Maimie’s eldest son.
  • Dandy McCabe – The Bull McCabe’s first cousin, who, unlike Bull, is honest and jovial.
  • Mrs. McCabe – Dandy’s wife, to who he has been married to for twenty years.
  • Tom Leahy – The local sergeant, investigating the death of a donkey.
  • Fr. Murphy – The parish priest.

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