Wild-Looking But Fine: Abbey Theatre Actresses of the 1930s

Biographies of two actresses reclaim the story of women in theater in 1930s Ireland.

The book explores the lives of Aideen O’Connor and Ria Mooney, two members of the Abbey Theatre Company who performed in Dublin and the United States in the 1920s and 1930s. The two had radically different backgrounds, ambitions, and creative visions and would pursue very different paths after their time as company members. They were united by one thing: a devotion to theater and Ireland’s National Theatre in particular. They came of age in an Ireland desperate to control and restrict women--their sexuality, their professional careers, their independent lives.

Here, Ciara O’Dowd recounts the life stories of women who have been absent from the recorded history of Irish theater. Only limited reporting of the achievements of these women exists, and, except for Ria Mooney, there are no prior written accounts of their lives. Drawing on extensive archival research, O’Dowd shapes the previously unknown material into narrative, bringing their complex stories to life. Rich and informative, these personal stories have much to reveal about the lives of Irish women in the arts during the first half of the twentieth century.

Ciara O’Dowd studied English and theater at Trinity College Dublin and University of Galway, where she earned her PhD. She is an author of the groundbreaking report Gender Counts: An Analysis of Gender in Irish Theatre 2006-15. Her writing on Irish theater past and present has appeared in New Hibernia Review, Critical Stages, Theatre Topics, and Banshee Magazine.