The Colleen Bawn
| The Colleen Bawn, or The Brides of Garryowen | |
|---|---|
| Written by | Dion Boucicault |
| Characters | Hardress Cregan Myles na Coppaleen Danny Mann Mr Corrigan Father Tom Kyrle Daly Eily O'Connor Anne Chute Mrs Cregan |
| Date premiered | March 27, 1860 |
| Place premiered | Miss Laura Keene's Theatre, New York, United States |
| Original language | English |
| Genre | Melodrama |
| Setting | Garrowen, rural Ireland |
The Colleen Bawn, or The Brides of Garryowen is a melodramatic play written by Irish playwright Dion Boucicault. It was first performed at Miss Laura Keene's Theatre, New York, on 27 March 1860 with Laura Keene playing Anne Chute and Boucicault playing Myles na Coppaleen. It was most recently performed in Dublin at the Project Arts Centre in July and August 2010. Several film versions have also been made.
While in America, Dion explored the turmoil that was boiling up in the new nation and wrote about it. As a result of this, in 1859 he wrote, produced, and acted in a very famous antislavery play called “The Octoroon” (Rowell 173). He and his wife played the leads and, after the first week of runs, only earned about 1500 dollars between the two of them. Dion thought this was a bit unfair since he had done the majority of the work for the production and asked for a larger cut for both him and his wife. Consequently, they both found themselves cut from the show entirely and jobless (Morash 88).
One evening, not long after the “Octoroon” incident, in the spring of 1860, Dion was walking home when he felt the sudden urge to venture into a bookstore he had passed a hundred times before. He came out moments later with a Gerald Griffin novel, “The Collegians” which was written in 1829 (Morash 88). He was so excited that the first thing he did when he got home was write Laura Keene a letter stating that he was writing a play based on “The Collegians” and that he would have the first act to her by the end of the weekend. He told her that they should start the rehearsal/build process immediately and he would finish the play as they rehearsed, so basically, the definition of theatre on the fly (Morash 88). Thus, Dion took his play writing back to his Irish roots and “The Colleen Bawn” came to life and opened at the Laura Keene Theatre in May 1860 (Morash 89).
The novel was based on the true story of Ellen Scanlan (née Hanley), a fifteen-year-old girl who was murdered on 14 July 1819. She was recently married to John Scanlan, but when he saw that she would not be accepted into his family he persuaded his servant, Stephen Sullivan, to kill her. Sullivan took her out on the River Shannon near Kilrush, County Clare where he killed her with a musket, stripped her and dumped her body in the river, tied to a stone. Her body was washed ashore six weeks later at Moneypoint. Both men had fled but Scanlan was found first and arrested for murder. At his trial he was defended by the famous barrister Daniel O'Connell. He was found guilty and hanged at Gallows Green, the place of execution at the Clare side of the Shannon. Sullivan was apprehended shortly afterwards, confessed and was also hanged.
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