Oak Leaves and Lavender (1946): an Oleograph of World War II

Abstract

O’Casey’s play about England during World War II, Oak Leaves and Lavender, is a commemorative tribute to the Battle of Britain telescoped in an oleo of fantasy and realism depicting heroism in the postlude of international fratricidal conflict and near-national strangulation: ‘its dialogue ablaze like the leaves of a beechwood in autumn’, comments Trewin in Dramatists of Today, and ‘in terms of…. impressions of Britain in her hour of danger, quivering on the edge of death’, notes Wilson Knight, ‘is beautifully apprehended’; the synthesis of past, present and future moulded into a chrono¬logical dream-drama, as ethereal as Shaw’s Heartbreak House or Chekhov’s The Cherry Orchard. Plot is minimal; mood impressionistic and the theme of an heroic life-death struggle culminates in a visionary optimism. Colloquial expression and folk-poetry blend with songs and choruses; and, although humanity’s ‘still, sad music’ is present throughout, the final message is Blakean:

He who bends to himself a Joy

Doth the winged life destroy;

But he who kisses the Joy as it flies

Lives in Eternity’s sunrise.