John Ferguson
by St John Ervine
by St John Ervine
John Ferguson is a powerful drama set in 1880s Ulster that explores the tensions between faith and reality as a family faces imminent eviction and unexpected challenges.
About The Play
About The Play
★★★★ WhatsOnStage
OffWestEnd Award nomination – Best Female Performance – Zoe Rainey
Rediscovered and commissioned by the Finborough Theatre, John Ferguson is an urgent and powerful tale of faith and fear in a time of crisis. It is another of the Finborough Theatre’s acclaimed series of rediscovered Irish dramas, following the huge success of another play by St John Ervine – Mixed Marriage in 2011.
Ulster in the 1880s. John Ferguson lives by the word of God, and believes there is a reason for everything. His wife, Sarah, lives by the earthly reality around her. The Ferguson family are on the brink of eviction from their farm when a local man makes a proposal that could be the answer to their prayers. But as a series of devastating events unfold, the Fergusons find themselves tested to their limits…
Set in a rundown farmhouse in County Down, John Ferguson was first performed at the Abbey Theatre, Dublin in 1915, establishing Ervine as one of Ireland’s greatest writers. The play was subsequently performed in 1919 at The Theatre Guild in New York where it was originally scheduled for just five performances – it eventually ran for more than 130, putting the Guild on the Broadway map and saving it from bankruptcy. It was last produced in England by Nigel Playfair at the Lyric Theatre Hammersmith in 1920.