Seen and Heard

Edited by Cathy Leeny
 

€20
ISBN 0-9534-2573-8

These plays make a rich, funny, moving, and theatrically exhilarating collection. In a diversity of stories, styles, and settings they re-define the limits of Irish theatre for the new century. These playwrights create an Irish theatre looking out to the world around it, re-inventing our sense of the past, our connection with others, and our unsettled present. They have all been seen, heard, and acclaimed by Irish and British audiences in recent years. Now coming to you in print, some bearing major awards.

Women in Arms | Mary Elizabeth Burke-Kennedy.
A highly entertaining and witty theatrical refiguring of stories of Táin Bó Cúalinge and the great heroes and heroines of ancient Ireland.
'Excitingly inventive evening - brought the ancient world to sparkling life, with great verve,
imagination and energy.'
Theatre Ireland

Couch | Síofra Campbell.
Love, desire, anxiety, and home furnishings in post-tiger Ireland; a cool comedy of intimate ruthlessness and barter.
'Fresh, funny, totally urban - a true original. Campbell is one to watch.'
Irish theatre magazine

I Know My Own Heart | Emma Donoghue.
The erotic adventures of Anne Lister, Regency rake of female persuasion; a chronicle of her love for women, and of three in particular.
'Standing room only - a play to remember and something of a milestone.'
Evening Press

La Corbière | Anne Le Marquand Hartigan
A powerful, poetic ritual of remembrance for the lost underground voices of war-torn Europe.
'Minimal, but to much profound effect - consistently absorbing and genuinely humane.'
Irish Times

The Lost Letters Of A Victorian Lady | Michelle Read
Highly comic, farcical romp over the minefield of Victorian sensibilities, and Irish Republican sensitivities; this is epistolary drama run riot.
'Hilarious, -- one of Ireland's best comic writers.'
Irish Independent

In the Talking Dark | Dolores Walshe
Searing confrontation with racial bigotry, set in apartheid South Africa. Resonates with present-day issues of race hatred.
'Written in fire -- blazes with passion and compassion.'
Sunday Times

 

Reviews
“Should be Seen and Heard – or at least Read.” Irish Lit. Supplement

“It’s great to see [these plays] in print.” The Irish Times

'A landmark collection - challenging, inspiring and entertaining. It is time for the map of Irish
theatre to be redrawn.'
Dr. Anna McMullan, School of Drama, Trinity College Dublin.