Kate O'Brien in the Theatre

Kate O'Brien initially made her literary reputation as a dramatist rather than a novelist. Her debut play Distinguished Villa (1926) won acclaim in London when first produced onstage, and critics compared her with Sean O'Casey. However, O'Brien's dramatic work manifests some key differences to O'Casey, not least O'Brien's recurring concern with the behavioural norms and sexual predilections of the English middle-classes, and her early awareness of the requirements of the British censor. Although O'Brien is remembered as a figure who transgressed the censorship rules of the Irish government, it was the British system of censorship she first had to navigate.