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September 10, 2025Open Access

“Well, cut my legs off and call me Shorty”: Flann O’Brien, the American Mythos and its Argot

Key Points

Flann O'Brien's correspondence with Tennessee Williams reveals artistic exchange, and its implications for Dublin's cultural scene.
The essay explores how O'Brien grafted American idioms onto Irish narratives, shaping local theatrical identity.
Contextual analysis of the Pike Theatre's controversial productions highlights the tension between local values and American influences.
The findings point to a significant cultural impact, stressing the importance of these letters in understanding Dublin's theatrical evolution.

Abstract

In the conservative Dublin of the 1950s, a tiny Pike Theatre was making a name for itself by staging the controversial American playwright, Tennessee Williams, for Dublin’s first International Theatre Festival. Its director, Alan Simpson, was arrested, however, for “presenting for gain an indecent and profane performance”. According to The Lost Letters of Flann O’Brien, O’Brien apparently wrote to Williams for advice about resuscitating his own flagging theatrical attempts (McGowan, Sherlock 2021, 155-56). This essay contextualizes the letters to situate O’Brien’s grafting an American mythos and its idiom onto “The Auld Sod”.

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