Play Anthologies
8 total works
The Methuen Drama Anthology of Irish Plays
by Brendan Behan, Christina Reid, Martin McDonagh, Sebastian Barry, and Tom Murphy
Published 4 August 2008
Introduced by Patrick Lonergan, The Methuen Drama Anthology of Irish Plays brings together five major works from the Irish dramatic canon of the last sixty years in one outstanding collection. Behan's The Hostage, depicting the capture and death of a British soldier by the IRA, was first produced by Joan Littlewood's Theatre Workshop in 1958 and was declared 'a masterpiece' by The Times. Murphy's Bailegangaire (1985) portrays a senile old woman's recitation of an epic tale to her two granddaughters who struggle to free themselves from her and exorcise the past. Reid's The Belle of the Belfast City, winner of the George Devine Award in 1986, examines the tensions present in three generations of women in a Belfast-Protestant family during the week of an anti-Anglo-Irish rally. Sebastian Barry's The Steward of Christendom won the London Critics' Circle Award for Best Play 1995 and was heralded by the Guardian as 'an authentic masterpiece'. McDonagh's 1996 play The Cripple of Inishmaan is a strange comic tale in the great tradition of Irish storytelling. McDonagh was awarded the Evening Standard Award for Most Promising Playwright.
Contemporary Irish Plays
by Tom Murphy, Pat Kinevane, Michael West, Richard Dormer, Ailis Ni Riain, Rosemary Jenkinson, and Louise Lowe
Published 29 January 2015
Contemporary Irish Plays showcases the new drama that has emerged since 2008. Featuring a blend of established and emerging writers, the anthology shows how Irish writers are embracing new methods of theatre-making to explore exciting new themes - while also finding new ways to come to terms with the legacies of the Troubles and the Celtic Tiger.
Freefall is a sharp, humorous and exhilarating look at the fragility of a human life, blending impressionistic beauty, poignancy and comedy.
Forgotten features the interconnecting stories of four elderly people living in retirement homes and care facilities around Ireland, who range in age from 80 to 100 years old.
Drum Belly is a fascinating play about the Irish mafia in late 1960s' New York. It premiered at the Abbey Theatre in 2012.
Previously unpublished, Planet Belfast by Rosemary Jenkinson is about a woman named Alice - Stormont's only Green MLA who must toe a delicate line between large, sectarian power bases in order to promote an environmental agenda in Northern Ireland.
Desolate Heaven is a story about two young girls hoping to find freedom from home in the trappings of love. It was first performed at Theatre 503, London, in 2013
Written for the 2012 Dublin Theatre Festival, and previously unpublished, The Boys of Foley Street by Louise Lowe is a piece of site-specific theatre which led audience members on a tour of the backstreets of inner-city Dublin.
Edited by the leading scholar on Irish theatre, Patrick Lonergan, Contemporary Irish Plays is a timely reminder of the long-held tradition and strength of Irish theatre which blossoms even in its new-found circumstances.
Freefall is a sharp, humorous and exhilarating look at the fragility of a human life, blending impressionistic beauty, poignancy and comedy.
Forgotten features the interconnecting stories of four elderly people living in retirement homes and care facilities around Ireland, who range in age from 80 to 100 years old.
Drum Belly is a fascinating play about the Irish mafia in late 1960s' New York. It premiered at the Abbey Theatre in 2012.
Previously unpublished, Planet Belfast by Rosemary Jenkinson is about a woman named Alice - Stormont's only Green MLA who must toe a delicate line between large, sectarian power bases in order to promote an environmental agenda in Northern Ireland.
Desolate Heaven is a story about two young girls hoping to find freedom from home in the trappings of love. It was first performed at Theatre 503, London, in 2013
Written for the 2012 Dublin Theatre Festival, and previously unpublished, The Boys of Foley Street by Louise Lowe is a piece of site-specific theatre which led audience members on a tour of the backstreets of inner-city Dublin.
Edited by the leading scholar on Irish theatre, Patrick Lonergan, Contemporary Irish Plays is a timely reminder of the long-held tradition and strength of Irish theatre which blossoms even in its new-found circumstances.
Brigit
I'd like it to be perfect . . . Beautiful . . . The statue . . . Unbeatable? . . . I'd like it to be what I feel . . . And I don't know what that is.
Set in the 1950s, Brigit, a prequel to Murphy's critically-acclaimed Bailegangaire (1985), tells the story of Mommo and Seamus, grandparents living on the breadline, who are raising three grandchildren: Mary, Dolly and Tom, when Seamus is offered a job to carve a statue of St Brigit.
Brigit premiered in September 2014, in a production by Druid Theatre Company, Galway, Ireland.
Bailegangaire
'One of the finest and most inventive pieces of Irish dramatic writing ever - the power of its language soaring beyond the loftiest aspirations of Synge and its insights on the human spirit cutting deeper than O'Casey's' - Sunday Independent
A Thief of a Christmas
'Grand opera . . . both timeless and contemporary' - Fintan O'Toole
I'd like it to be perfect . . . Beautiful . . . The statue . . . Unbeatable? . . . I'd like it to be what I feel . . . And I don't know what that is.
Set in the 1950s, Brigit, a prequel to Murphy's critically-acclaimed Bailegangaire (1985), tells the story of Mommo and Seamus, grandparents living on the breadline, who are raising three grandchildren: Mary, Dolly and Tom, when Seamus is offered a job to carve a statue of St Brigit.
Brigit premiered in September 2014, in a production by Druid Theatre Company, Galway, Ireland.
Bailegangaire
'One of the finest and most inventive pieces of Irish dramatic writing ever - the power of its language soaring beyond the loftiest aspirations of Synge and its insights on the human spirit cutting deeper than O'Casey's' - Sunday Independent
A Thief of a Christmas
'Grand opera . . . both timeless and contemporary' - Fintan O'Toole
Modern Drama: Plays of the '80s and '90s
by Caryl Churchill, Terry Johnson, Sarah Kane, Mark Ravenhill, and Martin McDonagh
Published 28 June 2001
With an introduction by Graham Whybrow, literary manager of the Royal Court Theatre, this anthology collects the defining plays of the 1980s and 1990s in one volume - Top Girls 'The best British play ever from a woman dramatist' (The Guardian) Hysteria 'One of the most brilliantly original and entertaining new plays I have seen in years' (The Sunday Times) Blasted 'Her dialogue is both sparse and stunning. They will call her mad, but then they said that about Strindberg' (Mail on Sunday) Shopping and F***ing 'A real coup de theatre' (Evening Standard) The Beauty Queen of Leenane 'The most wickedly funny, brilliantly abrasive young dramatist ...a born storyteller' (New York Times)The result is a collection of "must reads" that's excellent value for students and theatre fans alike.
Tiger in Winter: Six Contemporary Irish Plays
by Christian O'Reilly, Eugene O'Brien, Gerald Murphy, Malachy McKenna, Mark Doherty, and Richard Dormer
Published 9 October 2006
The Tiger in Winter: Six Contemporary Irish Plays
by Christian O'Reilly, Eugene O'Brien, Gerald Murphy, Malachy McKenna, Mark Doherty, and Richard Dormer
Published 9 October 2006
Containing six award-winning plays by contemporary Irish writers, this is an exciting collection of the best writing to come out of Ireland in the last six years. The volume is edited with an introduction by John Fairleigh, editor of earlier collection, Far From the Land, also published by Methuen Drama. The six plays in the volume are: Gerald Murphy: Take Me Away (2004) Gerald Murphy is a Dublin based writer and actor. His first play, 'The Welcome', was staged by Druid Theatre Company in 2001. His first radio play, 'Stranger in the Night' won a PJ O'Connor Award and was broadcast by RTE in 2001. Mark Doherty: Trad (2004) Mark Doherty is a Dublin-based writer who previously worked as a stand-up comic. Eugene O'Brien: Eden (2001) Eugene O'Brien is a Dublin-based writer and actor. 'Eden' won the 2001 Irish Times Theatre Award for Best New Play and was subsequently staged at the Arts Theatre, on London's West End. Malachy McKenna: Tillsonburg (2000) Malachy McKenna was trained at Focus Stanislavski Studio. He has worked extensively as an actor, and has written for film and theatre. Christian O'Reilly: The Good Father (2002) Christian O'Reilly is a Galway-based writer.
Two of his short films, 'The Birthday' and 'The Kiss of Life', have been produced and he has several feature-length screenplays in development. He also writes for television. Richard Dormer: Hurricane (2002) Richard Dormer is an actor based in Belfast.
Two of his short films, 'The Birthday' and 'The Kiss of Life', have been produced and he has several feature-length screenplays in development. He also writes for television. Richard Dormer: Hurricane (2002) Richard Dormer is an actor based in Belfast.
Included in this volume are Caryl Churchill's Vinegar Tom, about witchcraft in the seventeenth century; Dusa, Fish, Stas and Vi, an account of the lives of four young women by Pam Gems; Louise Page's Tissue, about breast cancer; and Aurora Leigh, adapted by Michelene Wandor herself from Elizabeth Barrett Browning's verse novel. Each play has an afterword by its author, and the volume opens with an introduction by the editor.
A collection of three plays for young actors written by Mark Ravenhill: Citizenship, Scenes from a Family Life and Totally Over You, and including an introduction by the author. Originally commissioned as part of the National Theatre Connections programme, these three plays were specifically written for teenagers and are ideal for young performers aged 13-25 years old. Written with greater warmth and humanity than you might expect from the author of such controversial works as Shopping and F***ing, Ravenhill's plays for teenagers are compassionate, intelligent and not at all patronising. With themes of particular interest to teenagers, the plays explore the search for identity during the transition to adulthood: self-perception, relationships, sexual identity and obsession with fame. style="FONT-STYLE: italic">Citizenship is a bittersweet comedy about growing up, following a boy's frank and messy search to discover his sexual identity: schoolboy Tom dreams of being kissed, but is unsure whether it is by a man or woman. style="FONT-STYLE: italic">Scenes from a Family Life is set in a world where everyone starts to dematerialise.
Six months on and Jack and Stacy are the only boy and girl on the planet. For Jack it's a dream, for Stacy a nightmare. And when the vanished start to return, Jack has to learn how complex adult relationships are. style="FONT-STYLE: italic">Totally Over You is an exploration of celebrity-obsession. Four girls break up with their boyfriends when they decide they only want to see celebrities. The boys decide to trick the girls into thinking that they are on the brink of fame and fortune as a boy band. The girls decide to win the boys back. But what will happen when they discover the truth?
Six months on and Jack and Stacy are the only boy and girl on the planet. For Jack it's a dream, for Stacy a nightmare. And when the vanished start to return, Jack has to learn how complex adult relationships are. style="FONT-STYLE: italic">Totally Over You is an exploration of celebrity-obsession. Four girls break up with their boyfriends when they decide they only want to see celebrities. The boys decide to trick the girls into thinking that they are on the brink of fame and fortune as a boy band. The girls decide to win the boys back. But what will happen when they discover the truth?