“A Couple of Blaguards,” at Keegan Theatre, is a blithe, light-hearted look at the lives of two brothers, Frank and Malachy McCourt. The pair tries to survive as best they can without much money in Limerick, Ireland, then make their way to a very different life in Brooklyn, N.Y.

“A Couple of Blaguards” was written by the brothers before they wrote their most famous works: “Angela’s Ashes” by Frank and “A Monk Swimming” by Malachy. But when the play begins, the brothers are thinking back to a period when they were illiterate, ignorant of the great masters of Irish literature and lacking mentors to guide them toward any kind of future in the field of letters.