Toronto Irish Players ‘Big Maggie’ premieres Feb. 20

More than thirty years after first performing it, Toronto Irish Players is bringing back one of John B Keane’s most celebrated plays, the often shocking, always entertaining Big Maggie.

The play opens as Big Maggie Polpin buries her husband. Far from being a grieving widow, Maggie has been set free by the death and no one is going to get in the way of her plans – not even her children.

Deconstructing the notion of the warm Irish ‘mammy’ Keane’s play presents a view of 1960s Ireland, and a long-suffering wife who kept her counsel despite enduring a loveless and unhappy marriage.

With her husband gone, Maggie finally comes into her own, but at what price?