This hauntingly lyrical play is about nothing less than language as the soul of a nation. Set in 1833 in Ireland, it tells of the British army’s campaign to replace the native Gaelic with English, an attempt to end centuries of fighting by setting up a political union based on a common language. Against a beautiful backdrop, Lieutenant Yolland, a British soldier falls in love with Marie, a peasant girl, and with Ireland. They are truly a pair of star-crossed lovers: when he is murdered, she goes mad and the British soldiers pillage the countryside in revenge.
