"Home Talk From Abroad"

Read an extract from "Home Talk From Abroad"

The play is set in a cheap New York bedsit.

The time is the mid 1970's, a Christmas morning.

It is Christmas morning, mid 1970's, Greg wakes up in a New York bedsit annoyed with his fellow young Cork man and immigrant, Tony, for ruining their chance to get off with two beautiful Moroccan ladies the evening before just because he wanted to be back to their apartment in order to make an arranged early Christmas day phone call home. Greg has no plans to phone his father because, as he says, phone calls are awkward for people who have nothing to say to one another and besides, like many at the time, his father does not have a phone. It is the time before Skype, FaceBook and mobile phones where the distance between Ireland and New York seemed much longer and the sense of separation much deeper.

When their talk turns to talk of home Greg's dismisses Tony's homesickness and tells of his anger towards his country that forced him to immigrate and made him an illegal and trapped in a far off country. However, there are still memories of home to be relived, other feelings to be evoked and possibly contact made with a father who doesn't even have a phone.

First produced by Cork Arts Theatre Club.

Produced in 2001 by The Keegan Theatre, Washington, and The Everyman Theatre, Cork.

"Why Josie Loves Vivian"

Read an extract from "Why Josie Loves Vivian"

Josie, an Irish student nurse in England has taken seriously ill with consumption. Owing to wartime travel restrictions Josie is unable to travel home, and so Peggy, her sister, journeys over from Ireland to be with her.

The sisters are under no illusion regarding this terrible illness, having already lost their father and an older sister to the illness.

Peggy finds an ever-weakening sister but also one with a heart that beats with unrequited love for someone she has never met, Vivian, the soldier son of the friendly hospital caretaker. Josie explains that Vivian, who is away fighting in North Africa, shares with her the same homesickness and fear of death.

Peggy struggles with accepting Josie's prognosis as well as her love for a complete stranger. The two sisters however provide the needed comfort for one another, and Josie sources the means to address her greatest fear, that of not finding her way home.

"The Leaving"

Read an extract from "The Leaving"

It is midnight on the night before the first Leaving Certificate paper. Six Leaving Certificate students lock themselves into a room in their town's heritage centre. The room was once the home of a man who died on hunger strike in an English prison during the War of Independence. The hunger striker charted a course for himself and stuck to it. The present day protesters believe they too have the courage and conviction to see their protest through. Their goal is clear: Enough is enough; it's time to call halt to the madness that is The Leaving. They set out to confront the system... they don't expect to be confronted with themselves.

Produced by Barnstorm, Kilkenny. Dublin Theatre Festival.

"The Shipyard Players"

Read an extract from "The Shipyard Players"

Dita Dudek, 22, a worker in the Gdansk Shipyards in 1978, plans to escape the harsh, oppressive communist regime by seeking asylum in Ireland when she travels there with her work-based, amateur drama group, which includes her boyfriend, to perform in an international amateur drama festival. Apart from wishing to escape Poland, Dita also feels an emotional draw towards Ireland ever since she saw a newspaper article showing how the whole community of the rural Irish village of Ballyduff embraces the magic of the stage play.

Dita has kept her true intention secret from Tomasz, her father and a staunch party member, and Irenka, 20, her sister, who she has cared for as a mother figure ever since their mother's early death. The consequences of her leaving will be major for them both: Tomasz will be shunned from the party that he believes in fervently and the one place where he feels belonged and Irenka will lose her sister and her one constant support. Tomasz, suspecting Dita's intension tries all emotional means to stop her from following through on her plan.

Dita has chosen an Irish play to perform in the festival, "Home Talk From Abroad", for a number of reasons: it allows for a small cast and its theme of unemployment and forced immigration shows the flaws of capitalism and therefore assisted in her trip getting The Party's blessing. The play also follows the absence of a relationship between one of the characters in the play and his father and possibly this theme also influenced Dita's choice.