Sean O'Casey - (1929)
Expressionistic tragicomedy about World War I containing a bitter indictment of war.
Harry Heegan, a football hero who has won a coveted silver cup, the Silver Tassie, which for him symbolises victorious youth, loves beautiful Jessie Taite. Harry and Jessie drink the heady wine of love and victory from the cup before Harry must go back to the front.
An expressionistic second act shows the horrors of the battlefield, and the succeeding two acts reveal the realistic consequences of that horror. The war kills and injures many who are dear to Harry, and he returns from it a wheelchair invalid whom Jessie drops for his healthy friend Barney.
At a celebration of the Avondale Football Club after the war, the disabled wear their medals. Harry, symbolic of all soldiers, bitterly resents his lot, and in a moment of high ceremony he drinks wine, which resembles the blood shed in battle, from his old silver cup.