The Lost Prince (2011)

I went out to Callan in August 2009 to see the 10th birthday celebrations for KCAT.  Medb Lambert put chat on me, and in no time I was in the Friary, running around the space with the Equinox actors, with a towel, or a box, or a paper bag on my head, or sometimes all three.
Independence and autonomy were the themes we worked on, and many and varied were the ways we worked.
There is a great (as in sensitive) review by Patrick Brennan at http://www.irishtheatremagazine.ie/Reviews/Current/The-Lost-Prince

The article includes some lovely production stills.

Poster above is by Steve Aylin

Casa Lisa (2010)

This was my third play for the final-year students at The Gaiety School of Acting.
Patrick Sutton ran the operation during the devising phase, then he passed the baton to Liam Halligan to direct the show.
Liam has some production stills on his website: http://www.liamhalligan.ie/
The story-lines that I discovered for the characters are a confirmation that you can hear a lot more than is said if you have the ears to listen.

Buck Jones and the Body Snatchers (2008)

Buck Jones again, in 1798, a year after the events of Galloping Buck Jones, and nearly 30 years before the 1829 business with Red Willie, although written 5 years later...  It's complicated. 

This is the poster image, taken by Trevor Hart, with Paul Meade and Roisin Gribbin in the grounds of St. Canice's Cathedral, Kilkenny, by kind permission of Dean Norman Lynas.

The credits are on http://www.irishplayography.com/ .  The play started its life as a piece for the stage, then Joan Sheehy did some work in The Georgian House, and the idea sprang up of staging the play as a promenade piece: a joy, it was.

I kept a kind of production diary at http://bodysnatchers.blogs.ie/.  There are lots of links there to reviews etc, some of which may still be available, but these things do tend to expire or fall into the black hole of the internet; such is cyber-life.

Nominated for the Best Production Award in the 2008 Irish Theatre Awards.  Revived in the Dublin Theatre Festival, at Ionad an Phiarsaigh, in 2009.

This photo is by Don Moloney, taken in the coach-house/garden of The Georgian House, Pery Square, Limerick.

Little Rudolf (2006)

One Christmas, my children received two toy reindeer as presents from a member of the extended family.  So it was that, one evening, as I slaved over the washing-up, and they played with their toys on the dining-room floor, I overheard them enacting a little drama involving Rudolf and his family.  I got to thinking, what would it be like to be the parents of a young reindeer who suddenly developed a really distinctive physical characteristic?  Once I asked myself the question, there was no stopping me; the resonances were too strong to ignore, and Little Rudolf was born.
It is appropriate that the play went back, as 'twere, to a young audience via Barnstorm, but I think it was a lovely thing for everyone who saw it.  I take credit for writing it down, but I think it was probably floating around in the ether for anyone with ears to hear.
The credits are on http://www.irishplayography.com/.

The Hunt for Red Willie (2000)

Long ago, my parents used to make home-brew beer and wine.  One Christmas, someone gave them a book called In Praise of Poteen: here it was that I first met Red Willie, the patron spirit of poteen-makers in Donegal. 
Sometime around 1798, a hideous mask of Austrian origin came to be associated with Red Willie, but that is a story which has yet to be told.  By 1829, the mask had lain dormant for some years, then suddenly it came back into action, and Red Willie stalked the hills. 
Buck Jones became embroiled in the affair, and there was some benefit for him therein.
http://www.irishplayography.com/ has the credits, and the script was published by Methuen as part of the Abbey Theatre series.  I suspect it is this additional exposure, along with the Peacock Stage production, that has given rise to the play's popularity in North America in particular, but part of me also likes to think that there is something about Red Willie himself that likes to roam across the wide open spaces, be they oceans, prairies or great lakes: he's been spotted in Chicago, Milwaukee, Toronto, Calgary and Burbank, among other places (like Naas and Headford).

The Ballad of Rory Roe (2000)

This was part of A River Through Time, a millennium project organised by Barnstorm in Kilkenny. 
The play was written to be performed in The Burgess Court, a large sloped grassy enclosure in Kells Priory, in County Kilkenny. 
The Ballad of Rory Roe is not listed in the Irish playography website, although the four core actors were professionals, and despite the fact that the whole enterprise was a huge undertaking...  However, there is some information about it on the Barnstorm website: http://www.barnstorm.ie/ .  There was a big community involvement, from all parts of Kilkenny, and it all took place against the backdrop of a "medieval village" which sprang up overnight through the efforts of the citizens of Kells.
The horse-drawn wagon, created by Harry Harris, was the centre-piece of the set, and a joy to behold, what with its folding doors, and integrated balcony ... every home should have one.

I’ll be true, be true to you

By all the stars that shine above.

When I am old, when I am grey

I’ll still be your true love.

I’ll still be your, I'll still be your,

I’ll still be your true love.

Mick Hanley composed the music and tweaked the words of the song for us.

The House in Gortnashee (1999)

This was my second opus for the Gaiety School of Acting.  Maureen White directed the piece at the Project Arts Centre in Dublin.  It was part of a double-bill with Gavin Kostick's play The Man Who Couldn't Cross Roads.
It wasn't the only double-bill that Gavin and I shared: we both appeared as expectant fathers-to-be in Holles Street at the end of January 1999; Louis joined my team on the 31st, and Conor joined Gavin's, maybe on the 1st February.

Breathing Space (1998)

This was a script I wrote for a company of eight actors - 4 Irish and 4 Welsh - as part of an Interreg-funded project shared by Galloglass Theatre Company (from Clonmel in Co. Tipperary), and Theatre West Glamorgan (later Theatr Na n'Og, based in Neath, near Swansea, South Wales).  It grew from a series of "encounters" between the two companies and, in particular, through a most creative period of devising in Neath in April/May 1998.
Cast and crew credits, and script, are on http://www.irishplayography.com/ but that doesn't do justice to the depth of friendship that grew between myself (and herself) and "the Welshies": cariad mawr.

The Play I didn't write about Henry Joy McCracken (1997)

I did write one play about Henry Joy McCracken.  It was called The Joys of History and it was a great piece of fun, but it never saw the light of day: ahead of its time.  It was read aloud once, by Paddy McCoey, Roisin Gribbin and myself, in the cottage in Quinsboro, Monasterevin, but it wasn't to be; I had to take a more serious tack at the subject.
I had been commissioned by Dock Ward to write a play about Henry, and I did a lot of work in that direction.  I was in the throes of an advanced draft in the summer of 1997 when the Provisional IRA declared their cease-fire.  I took a step back and came to the decision that a play about a United Irishman, presented by a group from a republican area, would be more likely to get in the way of peace than to help it.  Others might, and did, take a different view, and I respect their sincerity, but I had to decide for myself if this was how I wanted to proceed, and I chose to desist.  I explained my position to Paddy McCoey, who had been working with me closely on the project; he wasn't pleased but he understood where I was coming from. 
I left the project, which went on to become Rebellion, and I had no futher involvement with the script or the production.  Ironically, in the light of my "disappearance" from the accounts of The Mourning Ring", I was credited in at least one review with having written the script for Rebellion. 
Sometimes I wonder if I might be the man from God knows where.

The Comer Story (1997)

This was a collaboration between the community of Castlecomer (Co. Kilkenny), Barnstorm Theatre Company and myself.  It was a long slow build from a series of drama/story-telling workshops in early 1996 to the presentation of the finished product in mid-1997.  I actually wrote a completely different "first draft", called The Lacemakers, which was more of a reflection of the workshops we had been holding.  When the group read this draft, they declared in favour of something much more overtly celebratory of the history of the town and district.  I went back to the drawing board and The Comer Story is what emerged:
From Moneenroe to Monawee
From Crutt to Ballycomey
You've never heard a tale until
You've heard the Comer Story.

Strangers (1997)

Looking back, it seems strange that I had nothing produced in 1996, after all the activitiy in 1995; however, various pots were bubbling.  One of these was Strangers, a community theatre piece for Crooked House Theatre Co. in Newbridge, Co. Kildare.  Peter Hussey was the Artistic Director and my main collaborator on the show.  The play was in part an experiment in form: we had about sixteen performers and we wanted to involve them all in a fairly even-handed way, The solution I landed on was to create 4 sub-groups, all of whom were connected by the death of a central character; the characters knew the other characters in their own group, but to the other groups they were strangers.
We ran some lively audience-participation/improvisation sessions alongside the show.  I have an abiding memory of one man having a baby on the floor of the school hall in Newbridge.
See http://www.croookedhouse.ie/ for background on the company.

The Mourning Ring (1995)

The Mourning Ring was a play about Protestant culture and identity in Northern Ireland.  It was produced by Ballybeen Community Theatre.  I was in charge of the script, and helping to develop the story-line.  My title on the project was "Script Editor".  I worked alongside Paddy McCoey who directed the show.  Both of us were blow-ins: Paddy from North Belfast, and me from Dublin; both of us came from Roman Catholic backgrounds.  Paddy had distinctive red hair, and I had long hair and a massive beard.  You could say we sort of stood out in East Belfast.  Paddy was invited "over" first, because of his experience with large-scale community theatre projects with Dock Ward.  He brought me on his coat-tails, as a journey-man writer, who would do what needed to be done and then walk away.
The story revolved around a number of protestant families, the loss of life and emotional damage done by the Troubles, and the erosion of traditional rights.  The contemporary community was presented against the backdrop of the journey of their Scottish  ancestors to this inhospitable place, and the seeming impossibility of peaceful co-existence.  The outcome of the story was decided by the group, and I wrote what they wanted; the central character was a woman whose husband had been murdered; her choice was between staying here or uprooting her family and taking refuge in Scotland; her choice, in the end (and the choice of the group), was to stay.
I fell in love with them all.
This was the second half of my contribution to the peace process.  We were only able to do the work because there was a cease-fire; even with that, we had to be vetted by various people whom we never met; our car-registrations were noted and we were labelled "all right" for the duration of the project.
I still feel a pang of something when I see how little record of my role and participation seems to have percolated through the years, but that was part of the price of being there; I would do the same again if I had to.

Fixing Bill Haley (1995)

This was my second play for TEAM theare-in-education.  Like The Well, it was directed by Susie Kennedy.  I think everybody else did a fine job (see http://www.irishplayography.com/ for cast and other credits), but I don't think I delivered a beating heart with this play.  There was something going on all right, and it had to do with my late father, but the characters didn't have a real fire in their bellies.

The Beloved (1995)

Having worked with Patrick Sutton in TEAM, it was an easy progression to writing for the trainee actors at The Gaiety School of Acting.  From October to December 1994, I watched the second-year students at the GSA delivering a series of scenes and studies.  At the time I was moving to the cottage in Monasterevin.

When you look at the picture, there is small wonder that the play I wrote should be located in an isolated corner of rural Ireland.  The Beloved is a tale of families caught between poverty, greed and ignorance, and of a priest wrestling with his demons.  Love and revenge were the winners in this one.
By the time I came to work with the GSA students, I had grown accustomed to sitting in the corner of a rehearsal room or studio, and watching people, and listening, and feeling the unspoken.  That seems to be what I do best.
Apart from being a very satisfying artistic experience, this was the project which brought me to know Roisin Gribbin, but that is quite another story.

Galloping Buck Jones (1994)

I first met Frederick Edward "Buck" Jones in the pages of Weston St. John Joyce's book The Neighbourhood of Dublin, and I was delighted to make the acquaintance of such a romantic, slightly heroic, chap with connections in 18th century theatre and law-enforcement.  During the run-up to "Dublin, European City of Culture" i.e. late 1990 - early 1991, I had a couple of conversations with Martin Murphy about "things we could do", and the Buck Jones story was one possibility that I suggested.  We didn't have the opportunity to pursue Buck any further on that occasion, but a while later I saw Tinderbox performing Can't Pay, Won't Pay, by Dario Fo, and I was delighted with the quick changes which Dan Gordon, in particular, carried out with such flair.  The production set me thinking about how Buck and his nemesis, Larry Clinch, might be played by the same actor, and I was doomed.
In 1993, I presented the script for Galloping Buck Jones to Tinderbox: they seemed the right people for the job.  They loved it and staged a rehearsed reading, directed by David Grant, at the Old Museum.  They then had to go away and think about whether they could give the play a full production.  There was a day in the coffee-room in the Old Museum, when I was talking to Paddy McCoey about The Narrow Ground at one table, while the Tinderbox crew held a meeting at another table.  There was a bit of chat and banter, and then we each got on with our respective businesses.  What I didn't know at the time was that the Tinderboxers were discussing Galloping Buck Jones, and (I think) deciding to produce it, while I sat ten feet away, oblivious.  The show was staged in 1994 as a Tinderbox/Lyric Theatre Belfast co-production.
While writing this play, my fiction grew up and around the character of Buck, giving him a baby son who was spirited away to the wilds of Donegal after the death of Sarah Devlin, an unfortunate woman who got herself shot for Larry Clinch's sake.   More doom: five years later, after the birth of my own son, I knew I had to go back and find the baby, hence The Hunt for Red Willie, but that's another story.
see http://www.tinderbox.org.uk/ from whom I lifted the poster image (sorry), or see http://www.flickr.com/photos/tinderboxtheatre/4016819372/ for a full-size version; and http://www.irishplayography.com/ for cast and other credits, and script.

The Narrow Ground (1993)

For a long time I rated this as my best work; I still hold in huge esteem and it's only that I think I've learned a bit more since then that makes me think I may have done better.
After the dust settled on Wild Harvest, I began work on a script called Mountain Sunday, based around the shift from pre-Christian society in Ireland to the Christian/Roman society heralded by the arrival of St. Patrick.  It was a lumbering piece of work, though it is curious to note that The Festival of Lughnasa, by Maire MacNeill, was a key source of ideas; obviously Brian Friel knew a thing or two more than I did about bringing ideas together in a dramatic form.  Anyway, at a time when I was struggling with this unwieldy script, and making some small progress towards breathing life into some stuffy characters, I got a call from Andy Hinds.  He offered to use the script as working material in a workshop for emerging directors in Belfast, to give them an example of how you might work with a new script.  I accepted with a willing heart, and found myself once again in the Old Museum, sitting around a table with a group of theatre types.  A latecomer to this group was Paddy McCoey from Dock Ward Community Theatre; he had stepped in to fill a vacant seat at the last minute.  We got talking, and over the course of an evening's chat/debate/inspiration in a snug in The Crown, we determined that my script would become the basis for the next Dock Ward community theatre production.  Eight months later, I had completely re-written the piece as The Narrow Ground, creating characters around the members of Dock Ward, and working with Jules Maxwell on a series of songs which ran through the performance.
If you strike against my brother,
Then you strike also at me.
We are tied to one another,
By such bonds you cannot see.
It was a play about war, hate, family, community, love, tradition, and duty: duty to the past and duty to the future; in the end, the duty to the future weighed more in the balance.  A bit like Spike Milligan and Hitler's downfall, The Narrow Ground was my part in the peace process, or half of it; the other half came in 1995, with The Mourning Ring.

The Well (1993)

This was the first of two plays which I wrote for TEAM Educational Theatre in Dublin.  It began with what was by then an established process of devising with the company of actors working with TEAM in late 1992.  Patrick Sutton steered the devising, along with Maureen White as dramaturg.
Various changes were afoot, with Patrick moving to The Gaiety School of Acting, and Maureen moving to motherhood, so it turned out that the script was shepherded to completion by Susie Kennedy, the new Artistic Director, who also directed the show.
Details of cast and other credits, and the script, are available at the Irish Playography website: www.irishplayography.com

The Tide Can Wait (1990)

This short one-man show arose out of months of research and study around James Connolly and the 1916 Rising in Dublin.  I first came across Connolly as a real person when I was studying industrial relations history, and I began to learn about the man behind the icon.  As luck would have it, there was a book in my family home, written by his daughter, Nora, called Portrait of a Rebel Father.  I felt myself pointed towards Connolly and wrote a number of theatre pieces in my efforts to understand the man.  At the end of the day, the most I could do was to picture him in the chair in the stone-breakers yard in Kilmainham, waiting for the bullets.  Fintan Brady played Connolly in the Tinderbox production at the Old Museum in Belfast.  Chris Glover directed.  The play found another life in the hands of Brendan Murray, who played Connolly in Galway and Paris the following year.