



Produced by Judy Boss





IN THE SHADOW OF THE GLEN

A PLAY IN ONE ACT


By J. M. Synge



First performed at the Molesworth Hall, Dublin, October 8th, 1903.




PERSONS

     DAN BURKE (farmer and herd)... George Roberts
     NORA BURKE (his wife)......... Maire Nic Shiubhlaigh
     MICHEAL DARA (a young herd)... P. J. Kelly
     A TRAMP....................... W. G. Fay




IN THE SHADOW OF THE GLEN

A PLAY IN ONE ACT


SCENE.--{The last cottage at the head of a long glen in County Wicklow.

Cottage kitchen; turf fire on the right; a bed near it against the wall
with a body lying on it covered with a sheet. A door is at the other
end of the room, with a low table near it, and stools, or wooden chairs.
There are a couple of glasses on the table, and a bottle of whisky, as
if for a wake, with two cups, a teapot, and a home-made cake. There is
another small door near the bed. Nora Burke is moving about the room,
settling a few things, and lighting candles on the table, looking now
and then at the bed with an uneasy look. Some one knocks softly at the
door. She takes up a stocking with money from the table and puts it in
her pocket. Then she opens the door.}

TRAMP {Outside.} Good evening to you, lady of the house.

NORA

Good evening, kindly stranger, it's a wild night, God help you, to be
out in the rain falling.

TRAMP It is, surely, and I walking to Brittas from the Aughrim fair.

NORA Is it walking on your feet, stranger?

TRAMP On my two feet, lady of the house, and when I saw the light below
I thought maybe if you'd a sup of new milk and a quiet decent corner
where a man could sleep {he looks in past her and sees the dead man.}
The Lord have mercy on us all!

NORA It doesn't matter anyway, stranger, come in out of the rain.

TRAMP {Coming in slowly and going towards the bed.} Is it departed he
is?

NORA It is, stranger. He's after dying on me, God forgive him, and there
I am now with a hundred sheep beyond on the hills, and no turf drawn for
the winter.

TRAMP {Looking closely at the dead man.} It's a queer look is on him for
a man that's dead.

NORA {Half-humorously.} He was always queer, stranger, and I suppose
them that's queer and they living men will be queer bodies after.

TRAMP Isn't it a great wonder you're letting him lie there, and he is
not tidied, or laid out itself?

NORA {Coming to the bed.} I was afeard, stranger, for he put a black
curse on me this morning if I'ld touch his body the time he'ld die
sudden, or let any one touch it except his sister only, and it's ten
miles away she lives in the big glen over the hill.

TRAMP {Looking at her and nodding slowly.} It's a queer story he
wouldn't let his own wife touch him, and he dying quiet in his bed.

NORA He was an old man, and an odd man, stranger, and it's always up on
the hills he was thinking thoughts in the dark mist. {She pulls back a
bit of the sheet.} Lay your hand on him now, and tell me if it's cold he
is surely.

TRAMP Is it getting the curse on me you'ld be, woman of the house? I
wouldn't lay my hand on him for the Lough Nahanagan and it filled with
gold.

NORA {Looking uneasily at the body.} Maybe cold would be no sign of
death with the like of him, for he was always cold, every day since I
knew him,--and every night, stranger,--{she covers up his face and comes
away from the bed}; but I'm thinking it's dead he is surely, for he's
complaining a while back of a pain in his heart, and this morning, the
time he was going off to Brittas for three days or four, he was taken
with a sharp turn. Then he went into his bed and he was saying it was
destroyed he was, the time the shadow was going up through the glen, and
when the sun set on the