Wife to James Whelan

Teresa Deevy was an Irish dramatist whose once close relationship with Dublin’s Abbey Theatre soured during the Second World War after its running was taken over by the conservative former politician Ernest Bylthe, who rejected her play Wife to James Whelan out of hand. It’s had a fairly spotty performance history since, although the story of its rejection lives on and is perhaps the reason it may get staged a little more than her other work now. It follows a small group of friends in smalltown Ireland in 1937, whose worlds are changed when James Whelan wins a competition for a job in Dublin. Jonathan Bank directs this revival.