Joseph O’Connor (Star of the Sea, Redemption Falls) fictionalizes the rise and fall of real life Irish Catholic actress Maire O'Neill and her turbulent relationship with playwright John Millington Synge. The story begins with the down-and-out O’Neill (known as Molly Allgood) reminiscing about her life, beginning with her appearance in the opening of Synge’s controversial play, “The Playboy of the Western World.” In 1900s Dublin, O’Neill was still in her teens when she began an affair with the older playwright. She was a girl of the inner city tenements, while Synge the son of a once prosperous landowning family, a troubled genius and a poet of fiery language and tempestuous passions. Ghost Light is their story of commitment, and of partings and reconciliations.
