In 1991, the Abbey Theatre staged a version of The Plough and the Stars that was hailed by Desmond Rushe, then drama critic of the Irish Independent, as ‘the most revolutionary and controversial presentation ever seen of the theatre’s most performed masterpiece’. The director of this production was Garry Hynes, the new artistic director of the Abbey, who had chosen to begin her tenure with a version of O’Casey’s play. This chapter consider how and why Hynes has staged O’Casey,focusing on her productions of his work from 1991 to 2023, tracing an evolution of staging from the Abbey’s 1991 production to Hynes’ DruidO’Casey cycle of 2023.

Sean O’Casey’s plays, both within his lifetime and afterwards, have been commonly associated with the major theatres of Dublin and London, but a rich performance history of O’Casey dramas, often the lesser-produced later plays and one acts, can be found on stages in Ireland outside of Dublin. This chapter shows how, in the decades that followed O’Casey’s death, Galway and Belfast saw a range of theatres, directors, actors, designers, and audiences, in both English and in Irish, engaging with O’Casey’s wide range of dramatic forms, writings, and styles.