The whiteheaded boy

the long version

First presented at Dublin's Abbey Theatre in 1916, "The Whiteheaded Boy" is set in a typical Irish small-town household which is thrown into a frenzy, as the play begins, with the return of son Denis from Dublin's Trinity College. He is the whiteheaded boy of the title--the apple of his mother's eye and as a result the focus of his siblings' resentment--who has just failed his exams. Rather than face the shame of this failure, the family plan to ship him off to Canada; he just wants to marry his sweetheart, get a job, and settle down in the country. Hijinks, marriage proposals, bribes, and counter-bribes ensue as the family members exploit and misinterpret Denis' situation.