John O'Keeffe

O'Keeffe, John (1747-1833), playwright. Born in Dublin, he was educated in classics and French by a Jesuit. He worked under Henry Mossop at Smock Alley as an actor and an author, before moving to London. His writings, which include more than thirty-five comedies, farces, adaptations, comic operas, and other light-hearted stage entertainments, were collected in 1798. His Recollections (2 vols., 1826) are valuable for Irish and English theatrical history. He launched himself at the Hay-market Theatre with a follow-up to Goldsmith's She Stoops to Conquer (1773) which he called Tony Lumpkin in Town (1778). Wild Oats (1791) played for many years in London and Dublin. The She-Gallant (1767) was first performed at Smock Alley and revived in London in 1782; it features an Irish servant, Thady MacBrogue; of the rest, Irish material occurs in the following: Harlequin Teague (1782), a pantomime featuring the Giant's Causeway; The Banditti, a comic opera, includes music by Carolan [see Toirdhealbhach Ó Cearbhalláin]; The Toy, or Lie of the Day (1789), has a character called Young O'Donovan, a needy Irishman in England; The Poor Soldier (1783) and its sequel, Patrick in Prussia (1786) have Irish characters and settings as has The Prisoner at Large (1788); The Wicklow Gold Mine (1796) is an opera with Irish town and country types; and Tantara-rara Rogues All! (1788) is in Paris but including the characters Sir Ulick Liffydale and O'Toole, alias Lord Limavaddy. In other plays he expressed disapproval of Irish absenteeism, as in The Prisoner at Large (1788). Ireland provided O'Keeffe with material for stage-Irishmen and women, and opportunities for effusions on the natural beauty of ‘Shamrockshire’.