Time of Playing—About One Hour.
How they lived and what they wore will be told under the "Notes to the Manager" at the end of the play.
ARGUMENT.
Sure, there isn't much argument at all, at all. It's all happiness and merriment and love, and where there is happiness and merriment and love there isn't any time for argument. The Widow Mulligan is a cheerful washerwoman who lives in Mulligan Alley in Shantytown, surrounded by her ten little Mulligans, to say nothing of the goat, Shamus O'Brien. A good-hearted neighbor, Mrs. O'Toole, has a lively time with the goat, but she forgives all his misdeeds as it is Christmas Eve and the little Mulligans are starting out for a grand Christmas entertainment. When they return they entertain their mother and Mrs. O'Toole, and, incidentally, the audience.
But let's have done with the argument and let the fun begin.
Act I.
Scene: The Mulligan's front room. Entrances at right and left. Window at rear. At rise of curtain Mrs. Mulligan is discovered at C., washing clothes in a tub. Bridget Honora and Matsy are hanging wet clothes on a line, which runs across the rear of the stage.
Mrs. Mulligan (singing to a made-up tune as she washes).