George Shiels
George Shiels was an Irish playwright born in Ballymoney, County Antrim, who overcame significant personal challenges to make his mark in theater. Despite having only a primary school education, he was a voracious reader and developed a passion for writing plays. His life took a tragic turn in 1913 when a railway accident left him crippled, ultimately leading him back to Ireland after an attempt to seek a better life in Canada. This adversity fueled his interest in theater, and he became associated with the Ulster Literary Theatre, writing under the pseudonym George Morshiel at first.
Shiels is known for his insightful portrayals of characters who challenge societal norms, such as Paul Twyning, Professor Tim, and Dan Farran, who embody themes of hypocrisy and the struggle between appearances and reality. His first major work, "Bedmates," debuted at the Abbey Theatre in 1921, followed by more significant plays like "The New Gossoon," which explored the cultural tensions in Ireland during his time. As he aged, his work became increasingly influenced by his personal bitterness and societal disillusionment, particularly evident in his later plays such as "The Passing Day" and "The Caretakers." Throughout his career, Shiels achieved commercial success, notably with "The Rugged Path," which set attendance records at the Abbey Theatre. His legacy reflects a deep engagement with the complexities of human nature and societal values.
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George Shiels
- Born: June 24, 1886
- Birthplace: Ballymoney, County Antrim, Ireland
- Died: September 19, 1949
Biography
Three of George Shiels’s leading characters, Paul Twyning in Paul Twyning (pr. 1922), Professor Tim in Professor Tim (pr. 1925), and Dan Farran in The Jailbird (pr. 1936), reveal much about Shiels’s values. He uses each of these characters to expose hypocrisy and condemn shallow attitudes based on appearances.
Twyning, a tramp who does odd jobs, gains access to homes in which he ingratiates himself with the inhabitants and meddles benevolently in their lives. Professor Tim, disguised as a bum, finds himself shunned by his relatives who valued their kinship with him when they thought he was a prosperous professor. Dan Farran, an ex-convict who has been wrongfully imprisoned, now released, has gained the freedom to be his eccentric self in a convention-bound society.
Shiels was born in Ballymoney, County Antrim, Ireland. He had no education beyond primary school, but he educated himself by reading voraciously. He immigrated to Canada seeking a better life. His plans were shattered, however, in 1913, when he was so severely injured in a railway accident that he had to return to Ireland. He lived the rest of his life as a cripple, but his interest in theater was his salvation.
He became affiliated with the Ulster Literary Theatre, which produced two of his early plays written under the assumed name of George Morshiel. The first Shiels play at the Abbey Theatre was Bedmates (pr. 1921), a comedy in which an aggressive Cockney provokes an altercation between a Protestant from Ulster and a Catholic over sharing a bed in a shelter. This is Shiels’s first play under his own name.
Audiences received his light comedies enthusiastically, but it was not until nine years after Bedmates that, in 1930, the Abbey Theatre staged The New Gossoon, his first really significant play, in which he considers old and new Ireland, the tension between an Ireland struggling to maintain its traditions and an Ireland willing to promote progress.
As Shiels aged, he was turned bitter by his own physical limitations. This bitterness pervaded several of his dramas during the 1930’s. The onset of World War II also contributed to his discontent. One of his most celebrated plays, The Passing Day (pr. 1936), was spectacularly staged by Tyrone Guthrie for the Festival of Britain in 1951. It focuses on John Phibbs, a miser, and his malevolent wife who adopt an orphaned relative to gain control of his inheritance. They expropriate his property and deny him of the human warmth that might enhance his existence.
Shiels’s plays were dependable box office successes. The Rugged Path in 1940 broke all the Abbey Theatre’s attendance records, playing for three months, a phenomenal run in a city Dublin’s size. Shiels was successful in employing innovative dramatic devices, as in The Passing Day, whose six scenes are given continuity through flashbacks.
Shiels’s disenchantment with society and with his disability continued to the end of his life. His last play, The Caretakers, reflects a mean-spirited society with shabby ethical values.