John B Keane's Sive is a story of greed, sex and bitterness, of a scheming matchmaker and a resentful woman forcing a beautiful young girl to marry an old man for money.
Sive is a young and beautiful orphan who lives with her uncle Mike, his wife Mena and his mother Nanna. A local matchmaker, Thomasheen Sean Rua, convinces Mike and Mena to organise the marriage of Sive to an old man called Sean Dota for the sum of two hundred pounds. However, Sive is in love with a young man, Liam Scuab, who is deemed unsuitable for her.
Distraught, forced to do the will of her uncle and his bitter wife, and faced with an unthinkable future, Sive takes the only choice left to her...
Set against the harsh poverty and difficult times of 1950s Ireland, Sive caused considerable controversy on its debut in February 1959. Since then it has become an established part of Ireland’s theatrical canon and is also featured on this year’s Leaving Certificate syllabus.
