The End of the Beginning (play)
one-act play
The End of the Beginning is a 1937 one-act play by Seán O'Casey.
It is a comedy set in rural Ireland. A couple argue about whether men's or women's work is more difficult, and swap places.
The cast of only three (the couple plus the husband's friend) makes it suitable for some purposes e.g. entries in drama festivals.
Setting
The Berrill's kitchen in a country house
Genre
Farce or dramatic comedy
Theme
The main idea of this play is gender biasness, the way men generally underestimate females and their capabilities
Characters
Darry: A stubborn, fat man of about fifty-five. Often blames his wife for everything. Considers himself smarter and always right. Too sure of himself.
Lizzie: Wife of Darry, of about forty-five.
Begin with the source’s own compact description: “The End of the Beginning (play)” is one-act play. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Beginning, play and one-act, not as a finished interpretation.
Why this record matters
The phrase “one-act play” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.
Reception evidence should be dated and situated: later canonical status may differ sharply from the work’s initial circulation. The source revision retrieved here is dated Dec 2, 2025. The linked authority identifier is Q7732120. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1937.
Titles can refer to several editions, objects or performances, making precise identification essential before interpretation. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
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The original object or edition, catalogue raisonné, performance record, rights file and holding institution.
Three-step research path
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Questions for further research
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This entry incorporates text from “The End of the Beginning (play)” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.