M. J. Molloy (Michael Joseph Molloy) Biography

Irish playwright, born in Co. Galway; he trained for the priesthood until illness forced him to end his studies. Molloy's plays concern the decay of the West of Ireland caused by emigration and economic deprivation. In dealing with the violent consequences of this destitution, he anticipated the finest work of Tom Murphy and John B. Keane. Molloy also recalls Synge in the way he dramatizes individual suffering while avoiding the temptation of questioning its historical and political causes. His tone, reflected in the characters he creates, tends to be mournful and fatalistic. His first play, The Old Road (1943), staged at the Abbey Theatre, reveals the beginnings of his continuing preoccupation with emigration, as well as his characteristic use of local dialect and eccentricity. After The Visiting House (1946), Molloy wrote his best-known and most powerful play, The King of Friday's Men (1948). This was followed by The Wood of the Whispering (1953), The Will and the Way (1955), and Daughter from Over the Water (1962).