{{short description|1954 play by Brendan Behan}} {{Infobox play | name = The Quare Fellow |image = 1955 Quare Fellow (playbill).jpg | writer = [[Brendan Behan]] | setting = [[Mountjoy Prison]], 1950s |genre=[[tragicomedy]] | premiere = {{Start date|1954|11|19}} | place = [[Pike Theatre]], [[Dublin]] | orig_lang = English | characters = Prison Chaplain<br/>Warder Crimmin<br/>Prisoner A (Hard Case)<br/>Prisoner B (The Man of Thirty)<br/>Prisoner C (The Boy from the Island)<br/>Prisoner D (The Embezzler)<br/>The Other Fellow<br/>Enoch Jenkinson<br/>Assistant Hangman<br/>Shaybo<br/>Second Warder<br/>Neighbour<br/>Mickser<br/>Holy Healey<br/>Chief Warder<br/>Dunlavin<br/>Cook<br/>Halliwell, 2nd Asst. Hangman<br/>Medical Orderly<br/>Warder Regan<br/>English Voice<br/>First Warder<br/>Scholar<br/>Prisoner in Isolation<br/>Principal Warder<br/>Lifer<br/>Prison Governor }} '''''The Quare Fellow''''' is [[Brendan Behan]]'s first play, first produced in 1954. The title is taken from a [[Hiberno-English]] pronunciation of ''queer'' (without the homosexual connotation).
==Plot== The play is set in [[Mountjoy Prison]], [[Dublin]]. The [[anti-hero]] of the play, The Quare Fellow, is never seen or heard; he functions as the play's central conceit. He is a man condemned to die on the following day, for killing his brother. It revolts his fellow inmates far less than that of The Other Fellow, a very camp, almost [[Oscar Wilde|Wildean]], homosexual man. [[File: Mountjoy Prison gate.jpg|thumb|left|The Quare Fellow takes place in Mountjoy Prison during the early 1950s.]] There are three generations of prisoners in Mountjoy including boisterous youngsters who can irritate both other inmates and the audience and the weary old lags Neighbour and "methylated martyr" Dunlavin (named for the [[Dunlavin|village in County Wicklow]]).
The first act is played out in the cramped area outside five cells and is [[comedy|comedic]]. After the interval, the pace slows considerably and the play becomes much darker, as the time for the execution approaches. The focus moves to the exercise yard and to the workers who are digging the grave for the soon-to-be-executed Quare Fellow.
The taking of a man's life is examined from many different angles: his fellow prisoners of all hues, the great and the good and the prison officers.
The play is a grimly realistic portrait of prison life in [[Republic of Ireland|Ireland]] in the 1950s, and a reminder of the days in which homosexuality was illegal and the [[Capital punishment in Ireland|death penalty]] relatively common (35 people were executed between 1923 and 1954, about one every 10½ months). The play is based on Behan's own prison experiences, and highlights the perceived barbarity of [[capital punishment]], then in use in Ireland. The play also attacks the false piety in attitudes to sex, politics and religion.
==Name== The title is taken from a [[Hiberno-English]] pronunciation of ''[[queer]]'',<ref>[http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/quare ''Dialect variation of queer'' - Merriam-Webster on-line dictionary] accessed 19 March 2008.
The word came into use in the 16th century, related to the German ''quer'', meaning "across, at right angle, diagonally or transverse" - queer has generally meant "strange", "unusual", or "out of alignment".</ref> meaning "strange" or "unusual". In context, the word lacks the denotation of [[homosexuality]] that it holds today. The play does feature a [[gay]] character, but he is referred to as The Other Fellow.
In Ireland, the word 'quare' has also come to be used in a context that means "remarkable" (e.g. "That's a quare day" or "she's a quare singer"), which is most likely the sense in which Behan intends it to be read. It is also used to add accentuation to an adjective, usually as an alternative to 'very' (e.g. "he's a quare good pianist" or "that was quare heavy rain this morning"). The word remains in common use in Ireland.
==Performance== [[File:Cast of female Quare Fellow.jpg|thumb|Cast of an all-female version of ''The Quare Fellow'', [[Abbey Theatre]], 2024]] The play was offered to [[Dublin]]'s [[Abbey Theatre]], but was turned down. It premièred at the [[Pike Theatre|Pike Theatre Club]], Herbert Lane, Dublin, on 19 November 1954 to critical success. ''The Quare Fellow'' had its London première in May 1956 at [[Joan Littlewood]]'s [[Theatre Workshop]] at the [[Theatre Royal Stratford East]]. On 24 July 1956 it transferred to the [[Comedy Theatre]], London. In September 1956 the Abbey Theatre finally performed ''The Quare Fellow''. It had such success that the Abbey's artistic director, [[Ria Mooney]], pushed the next play back to allow ''The Quare Fellow'' to run for six weeks. In October 1956 it transferred to [[Streatham Hill Theatre]]. Its first New York performance was on 27 November 1958 at the [[Circle in the Square Theatre]].
==1962 film adaptation== {{Infobox film | name = The Quare Fellow | image = The_Quare_Fellow_film_Theatrical_release_poster_(1962).png | caption = Theatrical release poster | director = [[Arthur Dreifuss]] | producer = [[Anthony Havelock-Allan]] | writer = Arthur Dreifuss<br>Jacqueline Sundstrom | starring = [[Patrick McGoohan]]<br>[[Sylvia Syms]] | music = | cinematography = Peter Hennessy | editing = | studio = Anthony Havelock-Allan Productions | distributor = BLC/Bryanston | released = {{Film date|1962|11|}} | runtime = 85 mins | country = United Kingdom | language = English | budget = £147,322.<ref>{{cite journal|url=http://eprints.whiterose.ac.uk/114988/1/Bryanston_Films_An_Experiment_in_Cooperative_Independent_Film_Production_and_Distribution.pdf|last=Petrie|first= Duncan James |year=2017|title= Bryanston Films : An Experiment in Cooperative Independent Production and Distribution|journal= Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television| issn= 1465-3451|page=7 }}</ref> }}
In 1962 the play was adapted for the screen and directed by [[Arthur Dreifuss]] and starred [[Patrick McGoohan]], [[Sylvia Syms]] and [[Walter Macken]].<ref name="BFIsearch">{{Cite web |title=The Quare Fellow |url=https://collections-search.bfi.org.uk/web/Details/ChoiceFilmWorks/150031196 |access-date=2 April 2024 |website=British Film Institute Collections Search}}</ref> Although the film received some favourable reviews, it is not regarded as a faithful adaptation of the play.<ref>IMDb entry for the film.</ref>
===Plot=== Thomas Crimmin is a new warder at a Dublin prison where two men are condemned to die. One has his sentence commuted. Crimmin falls in love with Kathleen, the wife of the other prisoner, the "quare fellow".
Kathleen tells Crimmin her husband found her in bed with his brother and that was why her husband killed him.
The quare fellow is hanged.
===Cast=== *[[Patrick McGoohan]] as Thomas Crimmin *[[Sylvia Syms]] as Kathleen *[[Walter Macken]] as Regan *Dermot Kelly as Donnelly *Jack Cunningham as Chief Warder *[[Hilton Edwards]] as Holy Healy *[[Philip O'Flynn]] as Prison Governor *[[Leo McCabe]] as Doctor Flyn *[[Norman Rodway]] as Lavery *[[Marie Kean]] as Mrs. O'Hara *[[Pauline Delaney]] as Mickser's wife
===Production=== Blondefilm and CBS were interested in the film rights. However, in the end, the rights were bought for £2,000 by Arthur Dreifuss.<ref name="jeffs">{{cite book|title= Brendan Behan: man and showman|last=Jeffs|first= Rae|year=1968|page=155|url=https://archive.org/details/brendanbehanmans00jeff/page/155/mode/1up?q=+bryanston}}</ref> Dreifuss was under contract to Columbia Pictures at the time but could not interest them in making the movie. "The subject scares all hell out of the movie magnates", he said. "We really are making this film on faith, spit and belief."<ref name="guard"/>
Originally, Behan was asked to write the script. In the end, Dreifuss did it himself with additional dialogue by James McKenna, author of ''The Scattering''. The script made substantial changes to Behan's original. "We have made explicit what was implicit in the play", said Dreifuss. "We have taken the enclosed world of the play and extended it to the people who are affected in the world outside the prison gates. We have continued the tangent' we have not drawn another line on the plot's graph."<ref name="guard"/>
Dreifuss says they tried to end the piece with an upbeat ending. "We're trying to bring the thing full circle", he said.<ref name="guard"/> Behan was unhappy with the changes.<ref name="jeffs"/>
Finance was obtained from [[Bryanston Films (UK)|Bryanston Films]], Pathé Corporation in America and the Irish Film Finance Corporation. It was shot in Dublin, including location work at [[Kilmainham Gaol]], with studio work done at Ardmore Studios.<ref name="guard">{{cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/259784867/?terms=%22quare%20fellow%22%20%22patrick%20mcgoohan%22&match=1|title=The Echoes of Kilmainham|date=30 December 1961|page=8|first=Peter|last=Eckersley|newspaper=The Guardian}}</ref> Filming started in November 1961.<ref>{{Cite magazine|magazine=Kinematograph Weekly|title=Production|url=https://archive.org/details/sim_kine-weekly_1961-11-09_534_2823/page/16/mode/1up?q=%22quare+fellow%22+bryanston|first=John|last=Champ|page=16|date=9 Nov 1961}}</ref>
===Release=== The film had its world premiere at the Seventh Cork International Film Festival.<ref>{{cite magazine|magazine=Kinematograph Weekly|url=https://archive.org/details/sim_kine-weekly_1962-08-30_543_2865/page/n5/mode/1up?q=%22quare+fellow%22+bryanston|date=30 Aug 1962|page=6|title='Quare Fellow' to premiere at Cork Festival}}</ref>
Britain submitted the film to the [[Venice Film Festival]] but they rejected it in favour of ''[[Term of Trial]]''.<ref>{{cite magazine |date=3 September 1962 |title=Gondola Gleanings |url=https://archive.org/details/variety-1962-09/page/n6/mode/1up?q=quare |magazine=Variety |page=7}}</ref>
=== Critical reception === ''[[The Monthly Film Bulletin]]'' wrote: "In the film the centre has been shifted from the prison and its inmates in general, to a "hero", the new young, warder who begins by seeing everything as either black or white and (discovering that men can be gaoled for stealing firewood, and hanged for killing the seducers of their wives) comes to appreciate the existence of innumerable shades of grey. Patrick McGoohan gives a lightweight performance as this innocent, and Sylvia Syms is unconvincing as the Quare Fellow's promiscuous wife. The best performance comes from Walter Macken, compassionately cynical as the warder Regan, one of the few characters who still has a bit of Behan in him. Arthur Dreifuss' direction is quite effective on the unsubtle level dictated by his script."<ref>{{Cite journal |date=1 January 1962 |title=The Quare Fellow |url=https://www.proquest.com/docview/1305830680 |journal=[[The Monthly Film Bulletin]] |volume=29 |issue=336 |pages=150 |id={{ProQuest|1305830680}} }}</ref>
''[[Kinematograph Weekly|Kine Weekly]]'' called it "challenging stuff, enacted by an all-but-flawless cast."<ref>{{cite news|url=https://archive.org/details/sim_kine-weekly_1962-10-04_545_2870/page/17/mode/1up?q=%22quare+fellow%22+bryanston|title=The Quare Fellow|magazine=The Kinematograph Weekly|page=17|date=4 Oct 1962}}</ref>
''[[Variety (magazine)|Variety]]'' called it "grim entertainment."<ref>{{cite magazine|magazine=Variety|url=https://archive.org/details/variety-1962-10/page/n157/mode/1up?q=quare|page=6|title=The Quare Fellow|date=17 Oct 1962}}</ref>
''[[FilmInk|Filmink]]'' magazine argued "Syms' character wasn't in the play but became the focus of the film, which caused her to get worse reviews than she deserved (from the few people who saw it). She's actually quite good in a less typical performance (lower class, trash bag) – although the film should've been closer to the play."<ref name="filmink">{{cite magazine|magazine=Filmink|first=Stephen|last=Vagg|url=https://www.filmink.com.au/the-surprisingly-saucy-cinema-of-sylvia-syms/|title=The Surprisingly Saucy Cinema of Sylvia Syms|date=February 22, 2023|access-date=23 February 2023}}</ref>
=="The Auld Triangle"== "[[The Auld Triangle]]", a song from the opening of the play, has become an [[Music of Ireland|Irish music]] standard and is known by many who are unaware of its link to ''The Quare Fellow''.
==References== {{Reflist}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Quare Fellow, The}} [[Category:1954 plays]] [[Category:1950s debut plays]] [[Category:Fictional people sentenced to death]] [[Category:Films about capital punishment]] [[Category:Irish plays adapted into films]] [[Category:Plays by Brendan Behan]] [[Category:Plays set in prison]]