"Mr O'Casey is a master of knockabout in this very serious and honorable sense - that he discerns the principle of disintegration in even the most complacent solidities, and activates it to their explosion."[REF] .
There is a clear contrast between O'Casey's linguistic pyrotechnics and the limited, impoverished lives of the characters that utter his rich hyperbole; the result is both comic and tragic but it is clear that Beckett is in his debt.