''King of Friday's Men'' (1948) is an Irish play in three acts by Michael Joseph (M.J.) Molloy and is considered his first masterpiece. The first production was on October 18, 1948, in the

Abbey Theatre The Abbey Theatre (), also known as the National Theatre of Ireland () is a theatre in Dublin, Ireland. First opening to the public on 27 December 1904, and moved from its original building after a fire in 1951, it has remained active to the p ...

Dublin, Ireland Dublin is the capital and largest city of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. Situated on Dublin Bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster, and is bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, pa ...

Plot

The story is set in 1787, in Ireland, where a young woman, Una Brehony, is rescued by an aged man, Bartley Dowd, from an Anglo-Irish landlord, Caesar French, who sought her "for the first night" before she was marry her future husband, which was disturbing and frightful. Dowd, although an elderly man, is capable of fighting with the shillelagh or wooden walking stick in the process of rescuing her. The story has twist and turns as Brehony has actually used Dowd to rescue the man she actually loves, her future husband. The play brings up the issue of claims that feudal lords had ''

Droit du seigneur ('right of the lord'), also known as ('right of the first night'), sometimes referred to as ''prima nocta'', was a supposed legal right in medieval Europe, allowing feudal lords to have sexual relations with any female subject, particularly o ...

'' or lus primae noctis (right to the first night) from serfs in medieval Europe. Dowd beings to see himself a servant of the Christian messiah, one of the men of "The King of Friday's Men".King of Friday's Men, The Welch, Robert, 1947-; Stewart, Bruce, 1949-. The Oxford Companion to Irish Literature; Oxford : Oxford University Press. (1996) An ancient prayer in Ireland refers to

Jesus Jesus (AD 30 or 33), also referred to as Jesus Christ, Jesus of Nazareth, and many Names and titles of Jesus in the New Testament, other names and titles, was a 1st-century Jewish preacher and religious leader. He is the Jesus in Chris ...

as "The King of Friday" due to his death on

Good Friday Good Friday, also known as Holy Friday, Great Friday, Great and Holy Friday, or Friday of the Passion of the Lord, is a solemn Christian holy day commemorating the crucifixion of Jesus and his death at Calvary (Golgotha). It is observed during ...

Abbey Theatre Productions

The show premiered at the Abbey Theatre in Dublin in 1948. The following year was the same production. The show then premiered in the United States.

US Productions

The show was at the

McCarter Theater McCarter Theatre Center is a not-for-profit, professional company on the campus of Princeton University in Princeton, New Jersey. It was incorporated as a nonprofit in 1963. A two-time Tony Award winner, the McCarter’s legacy traces back to ...

in Princeton, New Jersey in 1951 and then moved to the Broadway's Playhouse Theater later that year. John Burrell was originally the director and waived being in the program billing after he has been supplanted by David Alexander. Set design was by Stewart Chaney. Unfortunately, the show only lasted four performance on Broadway.

Cast for the Broadway Production (1951)

Maggie McNamara Marguerite McNamara (June 18, 1928 – February 18, 1978) was an American stage, film, and television actress and model from the United States.Obituary '' Variety'', March 22, 1978, page 46. McNamara began her career as a teenage fashion model. ...

: Una Brehony

Sean McClory Séan Joseph McClory (8 March 1924 – 10 December 2003) was an Irish actor whose career spanned six decades and included well over 100 films and television series. He was sometimes billed as Shawn McGlory or Sean McGlory. Early years Mc ...

: Rory Commons

Walter Macken Walter Macken (3 May 1915 – 22 April 1967; Irish: ), was born in Galway, Ireland. He was a writer of short stories, novels and plays. Biography Walter Macken was originally an actor, principally with the Taibhdhearc (where he met his wife, ...

: Bartley Dowd. The character of Bartley Dowd was first played in Ireland by author and actor

, who also played the same character in the Broadway production in the US. Source:

Returning Back to the Abbey Theatre

The show returned to the stage of the Abbey Theatre for a 1952 production. Following that, there was a 1973 production with Sean Kenny as the theatre designer. Twelve years later, there was a 1985 production. Nineteen years after that, there was a 2004 production.

Characters

Bartley Dowd: Aged gentleman who rescues Una Brehony and considers himself a servant of the Lord . Una Brehony: The young lady who is rescued by Bartley Dowd Rory Commons: The Landlord Source:

Book version of play

The play was later published as the book ''King of Friday's Men: A Play in Three Acts (''1953)

Reception

In one production of the show, a cast member described the play as follow:

“My character is a ‘tallywoman', she’s a lower class, single woman who is forced by her landlord to be his lover. It’s hard to stomach, but this is something that really went on. The fact that the situation is so repulsive to a modern audience shows how far we’ve come with women’s rights, but with all of the abuse and misconduct from high profile men that has come to light this year, it’s easy to see how far we have yet to go.”

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:King Of Friday's Men Irish plays Broadway plays