In this 2 x 52 minute series we bring ‘The Plough and the Stars’ home to East Wall, a community who inspired the original characters. O’Casey gave a voice to this marginalised community 100 years ago, a community who today feel they have no voice at a national level.  Throughout their journey into this classic Irish text, they will discover that they have more in common with their fellow East Wall resident Sean O’Casey’s characters than they ever imagined.

But this will be a different production.  For the next eight weeks, the people and residents in East Wall will audition, rehearse and produce a one off performance of the play, on Ireland’s national stage, the Abbey Theatre.

Guiding them through all this is director, Caitriona McLaughlin.

She is one of Ireland’s leading theatre directors. And has worked with some of our greatest actors and writers, creating award-winning productions at the Abbey Theatre. 

While working with professionals throughout her career, Catriona has also worked with local communities across Ireland through theatre.

The narrative arc for Episode 1 follows Abbey Theatre Director Caitriona McLaughlin’s journey from the announcement of the project to final casting as she meets and encourage people from the local community to take part.  The sub-narrative follows the lives of the residents both on and off stage, and how their experiences mirror that of the characters in the 1916 play.

The narrative arc for Episode 2 follows the journey to turn the onstage crew into a slick drama group, overcome numerous hurdles, and lead the troop to the Abbey Theatre to perform ‘The Plough and the Stars’ to the nation. We continue to follow the lives of the residents both on and off stage, their personal journey and transformation as they delve deeper into O’Casey’s world and push themselves to rise to this new challenge, and represent East Wall to the nation in 2020.

Yet no one could have predicted what would happen next, with the world about to go into lockdown because of the deadly Cornavirus Covid 19, will this hardworking cast get to fulfil their dream of performing O’Casey on the Abbey Stage?The play is best known for O’Casey’s hard-hitting evocation of tenement life at a time of extreme change in early 20^th Century Dublin. The parallels with East Wall today are clear, with families living in tiny flats – albeit today with sanitation and modern amenities – against a backdrop of housing crisis, rising rents, decreased social mobility and increased social division, not just in Ireland but internationally. East Wall has been described as a village in the middle of a big city. Four to five generations of the same family have grown up and lived here. But with the rapid rise of house prices in the area the next generation will not be able to afford to live here … are we witnessing the death of an inner-city village?