The Plough and the Stars #1: Arthur Shields and the 1916 Easter Uprising

Scan of original playbill of The Plough and the Stars

Kitty Curling was a member of the Abbey Theatre company from 1926 to 1933. She was about 19 when she made her debut in a one act comedy called Apartments. According to the theatre's archivist Mairead, it's possible and maybe probable that because of Kitty's age she was a product of the company's acting school.

Her second show solidified her place in theater history. Kitty was cast as Mollser in Sean O'Casey's The Plough and the Stars. The play, which completes O'Casey's Dublin Trilogy takes place in a tenement building between November 1915 and the 1916 Easter Uprising.

Last month I sat down with the Abbey's archivist to talk about Kitty's career and I'm working on putting the audio I recorded of that conversation into a photoslide video for my Aunt Ann.