Birthright – Finborough Theatre
Continuing their re-discovery season, Finborough Theatre presents Birthright by T. C. Murray. Written in 1910 and staged at the Abbey Theatre in Dublin that same year, it was a huge success. Set around the same time in rural Ireland, a farming family comes to conflict over the different ways the two sons are being drawn in their own lives.
Shane, the second son, has an innate talent for farm work, often finding solutions to farm challenges more swiftly than his father, Bat. Yet, despite this, the farm and its birthright were never destined to be his. He has arranged to emigrate to America. On this particular evening, we find ourselves at the family table, where a freshly delivered trunk rests, symbolising the second son's future far away – a "spare," borrowing a phrase from recent UK te...