Big Maggie

Schools edition with notes by Eilis Flanagan

John B. Keane

• Publisher: Mercier Press
• Year: 2014
• Print ISBN: 9781781172858
• eBook ISBN: 9781781172865
• Topic: Literature
• Subtopic: British Drama
• Index: Literature

'Big Maggie 'J. B. Keane's most outspoken play' - The Irish Press
' Keane ... has brought the tyranny, the desperation and the frustration of the rural Irish matriarch roaring into the top twenties' 'A full-blooded, salty, earthy play with a great ring of truth and uproarious with comedy' - The Irish Times
'His depth of perception reveals a mature Keane' - Cork Examiner
 
The story of Big Maggie Polpin and her attempts to keep her family together after the death of her husband is an enduring theatre favourite. The dialogue crackles with hilarious, caustic putdowns as the indomitable Maggie deals with her feckless family and unwanted suitors. Everyone wants a part of Big Maggie and her property, but she has other ideas. John B. Keane's wonderful creation of a rural Irish matriarch ranks with Juno, Mommo and Molly Bloom as one of the great female creations of twentieth-century Irish literature. 

ACT ONE

Scene 1

[Action takes place in a graveyard. A near middle-aged woman dressed in black is seated on a headstone buttress smoking a cigarette, with her handbag clutched between her knees.

In the background can be heard the sound of earth falling on a coffin. A man and woman, both old, stop to pay their respects. In turn they shake hands with MAGGIE POLPIN]

Old Man: Sorry for your trouble, Maggie, he was a good man, God be good to him.

Maggie: He was so.

Old Woman: He was a good man, if he had a failing, Maggie, ’twas a failing many had.

Old Man: He had a speedy release, God be good to him and that’s a lot.

Old Woman: Worse if he was after spending six or seven months in a sick bed.

Maggie: He went quick and that was the way he wanted it.

Old Woman: That was a blessing.

Old Man: [Emphatically] That was a lot all right. Make no mistake! We can’t all go the way we’d like.

Maggie: We can’t.

Old Man: You may say we can’t! There’s no one can.

Old Woman: He was a cheerful sort of a man.

Maggie: Cheerful is the word.

Old Man: What age was he?

Maggie: He was just turned sixty.

Old Man: He didn’t get a bad share of it.

Old Woman: There’s a lot never saw sixty.

Old Man: And a lot never will! We must be thankful for all things and accept the Holy Will of God.

Maggie: We must indeed! Well, I won’t be holding you up, if you’re in a hurry.

Old Man: I understand, Maggie. You want your own about you at a time like this. I was wondering if you’d have any notion where Madge Gibbons is buried? There’s no stone over her.

Maggie: I’ve no idea! Sure isn’t one grave as good as another. ’Tis the thought that counts you know!

[Old man and old woman exit and GERT enters]

Gert: Won’t you go over to lay on the wreaths?

Maggie: I won’t.

Gert: But, Mother …

Maggie: Don’t but me now, like a good girl. I’m in no humour for it.

Gert: I just thought it would be the correct thing to do.

Maggie: You’re not old enough yet to know what is correct and what is not correct. God forgive me if there’s two things I can’t endure ’tis the likes of them two caterwaulin’ about the dead and the other is the thump of clods on a timber coffin. I couldn’t bear to watch that gang around the trench and they trying to look sorry.

Gert: Can I go over to help with the laying of the wreaths?

Maggie: No! Your brothers and sisters can do that. ’Tisn’t that the wreaths will do him any good.

Gert: Oh, mother, how can you say a thing like that!

Maggie: It’s the truth! God forgive me ’tis a hard thing to say about my own husband, but that’s what they’ll be saying in the pubs after the funeral. ’Tis what everybody knows. I’m not a trained mourner, Gert. I can’t olagón or moan or look for the arm of another hypocrite to support me.

Gert: He was no saint but he was my father. [Rebelliously] I’m going over to the grave.

...

Table of contents

• Characters
• ACT ONE
• ACT TWO
• Introduction to NOTES
• Characters
• Themes/Issues
• Cultural Context/Social Setting
• General Vision and Viewpoint
• Literary Genre
• Relationships
• Hero, Heroine, Villain
• Glossary
• About the Author
• About the Publisher