The Quare Fellow [antikvár]

By the same author the hostage borstal boy THE QÜARE FELLOW The scene is an Irish prison during the twentyfours hours preceding an execution-the execution of 'the quare fellow', who never appears on the stage. There is no story, although a great many things happen, because the author is concerned simply to show the eflfect of a hanging on his various characters-the old lags swigging methylated spirit, the warders, a reprieved murderer, and the hangman himself, over for the job from his pub in England. And the tension rises hour by hour to the moment when the grim procession moves across the yard and the clock strikes eight. "In Brendan Behan's tremendous new play language is out on a spree, ribald, dauntless and spoiling for a fight . . . with superb dramatic tact, the tragedy is concealed beneath layer after layer of rough comedy". kenneth tynan in the Observer.