n/a

n/a

Abbey Theatre, Peacock Stage, Dublin >>>

1985

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in Frank McGuinness Plays 1, Faber & Faber, London, 1988

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If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click, otherwise
(below) are AbeBooks for secondhand & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies

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One Act

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1

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short monologue of the life of the Baglady and her ring

King's Theatre, Edinburgh

2000

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I don't think the play has been published but you could try abebooks.com
or the playwright direct where their email is shown at the top of the page

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Adaptation

18

3

doubling possible

-

Barbaric Comedies is a tragi-comedy following the fortunes of one Don Juan Manuel Montenegro. The play is an epic and wild story of greed, ferocity and passion.

Liverpool

1989

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I don't think the play has been published but you could try abebooks.com
or the playwright direct where their email is shown at the top of the page

Skit

Sketch

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-

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Abbey Theatre, Abbey Stage, Dublin >>>

1994

Abbey, Dublin

in Frank McGuinness Plays 2, Faber & Faber, London, 2002

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If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click, otherwise
(below) are AbeBooks for secondhand & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies

-

Play/Drama

2

3

-

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A house in Booterstown, Co. Dublin, overlooking the bird sanctuary

The Dominican Convent, Dun Laoghaire, Co. Dublin

1984

Team Educational Theatre Company, Dublin >>>

in Three Team Plays", Wolfhound, Dublin, 1988

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If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click, otherwise
(below) are AbeBooks for secondhand & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies

play for post-primary schools

Youth Audience

5

1

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Borderlands explores Southern attitudes to Northern Ireland and attitudes of young people in the North. Four young men from Derry, two Catholics and two Protestants, decide to bury their religious differences and go on a charity walk. On their first day across the border, they prepare to pitch their tent in the Republic

Gate Theatre, Dublin >>>

1990

Gate Theatre

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I don't think the play has been published but you could try abebooks.com
or the playwright direct where their email is shown at the top of the page

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Play/Drama

9

4

-

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The Breadman tells the story of the Sinner Courtney, a middle-aged man who has temporarily gone off the rails in an attempt to come to terms with his relationship with his now dead father, a breadman who delivered bread around a small town in County Donegal all his life. As his antics become more and more unusual, his immediate and extended family become increasingly embarrassed and disapproving of Courtney's behaviour.

Abbey Theatre, Peacock Stage, Dublin >>>

1988

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-

-

I don't think the play has been published but you could try abebooks.com
or the playwright direct where their email is shown at the top of the page

-

One Act

2

1

-

-

-

Abbey Theatre, Peacock Stage, Dublin >>>

1988

-

in Frank McGuinness Plays 1, Faber & Faber, London, 1988

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If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click, otherwise
(below) are AbeBooks for secondhand & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies

-

Play/Drama

4

3

-

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In a burial ground seven Derry people wait for the miracle to happen, namely that the dead will rise. Through the play they tell their stories, which are also the stories of their ruined city, its sorrows, its comedy and its history.

Olivier Theatre, National Theatre, London >>>

1997

National Theatre, London >>>

Methuen Drama, London >>> , 2007

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If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click, otherwise
(below) are AbeBooks for secondhand & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies

-

Adaptation

6

3

extras

Original Playwright - Bertolt Brecht

A morality masterpiece, The Caucasian Chalk Circle powerfully demonstrates Brecht's pioneering theatrical techniques. This version by Frank McGuinness is published to coincide with the National Theatre's production touring the UK. A servant girl sacrifices everything to protect a child abandoned in the heat of civil war. Order restored, she is made to confront the boy's biological mother in a legal contest over who deserves to keep him. The comical judge calls on an ancient tradition ' the chalk circle ' to resolve the dispute. Who wins? This version by Frank McGuinness was first presented by the National Theatre in 1997 and revived in 2007, opening at the Gulbenkian Theatre, Canterbury, on 8 January.

Almeida Theatre, London, EUR >>>

2007

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Faber and Faber, (not for commercial sale), 2007

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If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click, otherwise
(below) are AbeBooks for secondhand & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies

-

Play/Drama

4

3

-

Samuel Adamson, Moira Buffini, David Hare, Charlotte Jones, Frank McGuinness and Roy Williams each wrote a link for the Almeida's first chain play, performed for one night only as the theatre's major fund-raising event.

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Olivier Theatre, National Theatre, London >>>

2001

Conceived and commissioned by Angus Mackenchnie

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I don't think the play has been published but you could try abebooks.com
or the playwright direct where their email is shown at the top of the page

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Play/Drama

8

5

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One off performance of chain writing to celebrate the National Theatre's 25th anniversary. A scene each from all the authors for a performance on one night

Playhouse, London

1996

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Faber & Faber, London, 1996

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If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click, otherwise
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-

Adaptation

3

4

1b 1g

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The final revolt of a wife who has been treated as a plaything by pompous husband.

Abbey Theatre, Abbey Stage, Dublin >>>

1999

Abbey, Dublin

Faber & Faber, London, 1999

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If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click, otherwise
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-

Play/Drama

5

4

-

-

As World War II rages in Europe, in Donegal there is another war closer to home. In Dolly West's Kitchen, her family has its own conflicts to face as their lives are transformed with the arrival of allied troops across the border in Derry. War changes everything - its tragedies, its survivals and the history of the West family will be changed forever.

Minerva Theatre, Chichester

1997

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Faber & Faber, London, 1997

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If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click, otherwise
(below) are AbeBooks for secondhand & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies

-

Adaptation

4

6

-

-

Abbey Theatre, Peacock Stage, Dublin >>>

1982

Abbey, Dublin

Monarch Line, Dublin, 1982

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If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click, otherwise
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Comedy Drama

Comedy

2

5

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The Factory Girls tells the story of five women facing the threat of redundancy, who stage a lock-in in a shirt factory in Co. Donegal. As their protest continues the woman learn more about each other and themselves as they explore their anger, courage and compassion.

Abbey Theatre, Peacock Stage, Dublin >>>

1988

Abbey, Dublin

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-

I don't think the play has been published but you could try abebooks.com
or the playwright direct where their email is shown at the top of the page

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One Act

1

-

-

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Feed the Money and Keep Them Coming was originally presented alongside 'Brides of Ladybag' and 'Flesh and Blood' by the same author (both listed separately) under the umbrella title 'Times In It'.

Abbey Theatre, Peacock Stage, Dublin >>>

1988

Abbey, Dublin

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-

I don't think the play has been published but you could try abebooks.com
or the playwright direct where their email is shown at the top of the page

-

One Act

1

2

-

-

-

Gate Theatre, Dublin >>>

2002

Gate Theatre

Faber & Faber, London, 2002

-

If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click, otherwise
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-

Play/Drama

3

2

-

-

Inspired by the lives of Hilton Edwards and Michéal MacLiammóir, the two founders of The Gate Theatre, Gates of Gold is about a marriage, a theatre starting and a life ending. The play explores the magic of theatre and the imagination, and addresses questions of sexuality, gender confusion and human mortality.

The Lombard Street Studios, Dublin

1985

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-

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I don't think the play has been published but you could try abebooks.com
or the playwright direct where their email is shown at the top of the page

play for post-primary students

Youth Audience

-

-

-

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Gatherers is set in the Phoenix Park in 1932, during the Eucharistic Congress, and in 1979, during the Papal visit. Generations meet and pass, each member telling their story. Their lives give personal shape to the destiny of their country, its beliefs and bigotries, its loves and losses, its fears and hates.

Bristol: Old Vic, UK, EUR >>>

2007

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-

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I don't think the play has been published but you could try abebooks.com
or the playwright direct where their email is shown at the top of the page

-

Adaptation

4

1

-

Original Playwright - Henrik Ibsen

While McGuinness retains the Norwegian fjord setting, the Anglo-Irish inflection of his dialogue brings the tension between morality, integrity and religion closer to home. Robert Bowman's production for Bristol Old Vic is a mix of the compelling and the overcooked, sometimes tending towards melodrama but at its best burning with a suppressed, white-hot rage. Sian Thomas is Mrs Alving, the widow of a captain whose secret life of debauchery poisoned the family's outwardly respectable domesticity. Buttoned up to the throat in a tight, dark gown, Thomas vibrates with hskation and fear, disgusted by her own collusion in maintaining a lie, but desperate to keep her son, Oswald, free from the taint she dreads may be passed down from father to son. Anger boils all around her. The pale, sweaty, syphilitic Oswald seems diseased with a toxic hatred for his inadequate parents, worsened by his initial inability to comprehend entirely his own feelings. When he begs Mrs Alving to perform a mercy killing should his suffering become too acute, his greatest horror is that his illness should reduce him to a baby, once again putting him wholly under the control of a mother who, for all her smothering, guilt-ridden devotion, has failed him. There's another problematic parent-child relationship, between the lame, drunkard carpenter Engstrand and his supposed daughter, Mrs Alving's maid Regine. Regine regards Engstrand as a kind of devil, and his mined foot in its clumsy built-up shoe as a cloven hoof; his plans for her future are devious and morally dubious. Yet he suggests a father who genuinely seeks contentment, albeit of a warped kind, with his cruelly contemptuous child. The tears that fill his eyes when the ambitious Regine rejects him are moving but also richly ironic: she is not, in fact, his daughter, but the illegitimate offspring of dead Alving.
Sam Marlowe, The Times

Lourdes Hall, Sean MacDermott Street, Dublin.

1982

Platform Theatre group

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I don't think the play has been published but you could try abebooks.com
or the playwright direct where their email is shown at the top of the page

-

One Act

1

-

-

-

-

Donmar Warehouse Theatre, London >>>

2004

-

-

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I don't think the play has been published but you could try abebooks.com
or the playwright direct where their email is shown at the top of the page

-

Adaptation

5

4

boys

-

Euripides himself certainly shows humanity at the end of its tether: the captive Trojan queen, having seen her daughter sacrificed and her son butchered by his Thracian protector, savagely exacts revenge. And Frank McGuinness's new version matches the story's violence with visceral language. Hecuba's daughter tells her mother "you will see your lamb ripped from you." The chorus announces "the gods have scalded the sons of Priam." Hecuba herself dismisses the wriggling Thracian king as a "barbaric thug". - Guardian

Richmond/tour

1999

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-

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I don't think the play has been published but you could try abebooks.com
or the playwright direct where their email is shown at the top of the page

-

Adaptation

4

3

-

-

Revival

Lyric Theatre, Belfast, Ireland >>>

1991

Lyric Theatre

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I don't think the play has been published but you could try abebooks.com
or the playwright direct where their email is shown at the top of the page

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Adaptation

-

14

doubling possible

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In rural Spain, five daughters exist in a cloistered household managed by their widowed mother and demented grandmother. Following the death of her husband, Bernarda Alba enforces an eight-year mourning period on her daughters, and tensions build.

Gate Theatre, Dublin >>>

1986

Gate Theatre

Faber & Faber, London, 1987

-

If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click, otherwise
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Play

Biographical

6

3

-

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Rome 1606, Caravaggio consorting with whores and rent boys- yet believing.

Arcola Theatre, London, EUR >>>

2008

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-

-

I don't think the play has been published but you could try abebooks.com
or the playwright direct where their email is shown at the top of the page

-

Adaptation

5

3

-

Original Playwright - Henrik Ibsen. From a literal translation by Charlotte Barslund

Trapped in an unhappy marriage, Ellida is consumed by her longing for the sea. But the startling arrival of a stranger forces her to confront both the past and a desire for freedom that could destroy her. . .

Dublin Theatre Festival, Ireland >>>

1985

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-

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I don't think the play has been published but you could try abebooks.com
or the playwright direct where their email is shown at the top of the page

-

One Act

1

1

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A comic routine for two, Ladybag reverses the dilemmas and crises of single parenthood and the war between generations

Irondale Center, NY

2008

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-

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I don't think the play has been published but you could try abebooks.com
or the playwright direct where their email is shown at the top of the page

-

Musical

1

1

-

written by Di Trevis and Frank McGuinness; music by Dominic Muldowney. Adapted from Henry Mayhew's classic book, London Labour and the London Poor.

London Cries is about the power of music—how music sustains people through hardship. From the crumbling walls and recesses of an old London theatre the ghosts of yesteryear step forth to share with us their lives, their loves, and the lilting melodies of a bygone Victorian era. Drawn from first-hand accounts of the traders and prostitutes, the sewer-men and flower-girls, the criminals and con men who hacked a precarious living from the streets of the metropolis, London Cries speaks to us in words and music of the suffering but also the joys of London life as it was really lived
- press release

Bewley's Cafe Theatre, Dublin >>>

1993

Project Arts Centre, Dublin >>>

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I don't think the play has been published but you could try abebooks.com
or the playwright direct where their email is shown at the top of the page

Adaptation 1 Act

One Act

2

1

-

from Pirandello

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The Pit, London

1989

Royal Shakespeare Company >>>

Faber & Faber, London, 1989

-

If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click, otherwise
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-

Play/Drama

7

6

chorus

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Mary and Lizzie Burns, two Irish women, embark on a theatrical, musical and visual journey through the play, encountering a magical priest, their dead mother, the Queen of England, Frederick Engels and Karl Marx amongst others.

Irish Repertory Theatre, NY, USA >>>

2008

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-

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I don't think the play has been published but you could try abebooks.com
or the playwright direct where their email is shown at the top of the page

-

Adaptation

4

3

-

Original Playwright - Henrik Ibsen

Halvard Solness, a successful architect and builder in a small Norwegian town, has mercilessly dominated his employees and his wife, Aline. Hilde Wangel, a vivacious young woman arrives unannounced. Hilde has idolized Solness for ten years, since in the early stages of his career, he built a large church in her hometown and heroically climbed to the top of the tower to celebrate its dedication. The architect’s presence had a profound effect on the young girl of 12 when he promised to return and, 'build her a kingdom'. Today, the ten years are up and Hilde has come to reap what he has sown.
- press release

Theatre Royal Haymarket, London

2000

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Faber & Faber, London, 2003

-

If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click, otherwise
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-

Adaptation

-

-

-

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It is a sultry midsummer's night. Miss Julie, the arrogant and beautiful daughter of the master of the house, is alone with the servants. S