| Shamus O'Brien | |
| Based On: | poem Shamus O'Brien by Sheridan Le Fanu |
| Director: | Alfred Dampier |
| Setting: | County Wicklow and Dublin, Ireland |
| Place: | Gaiety Theatre, Sydney |
| Orig Lang: | English |
| Genre: | melodrama |
Shamus O'Brien is a 1887 Australian stage play by Alfred Dampier and Percy Kehoe based on a poem about the Irish rebellion of 1798 by Sheridan Le Fanu.[1] [2] It was one of Dampier's most popular plays and was often revived.
The Sydney Morning Herald says "some portions of the plot could perhaps hardly with justice be said to be absolutely new" and while it allowed the play "contains many effective scenes which help to maintain the interest of the auditor in the drama, the performance occupied a longer time than was desirable."[3]
The Age called it "an interesting play. It is true there is no striking originality either in the characters or in the situations which they are made to occupy, but nevertheless the story is one which awakens the interest of the audience, and stirs the Hibernian breast to positive enthusiasm."[4]