n/a

n/a

Abbey Theatre, Peacock Stage, Dublin >>>

1985

-

in Frank McGuinness Plays 1, Faber & Faber, London

1988

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

-

1

-

Notes: -

Synopsis: short monologue of the life of the Baglady and her ring

King's Theatre, Edinburgh

2000

-

-

-

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

18

3

doubling possible

Notes: -

Synopsis: 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

-

-

-

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

-

-

-

Notes: -

Synopsis:

Abbey Theatre, Abbey Stage, Dublin >>>

1994

Abbey, Dublin

in Frank McGuinness Plays 2, 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

2

3

-

Notes: -

Synopsis: 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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play for post-primary schools

Youth Audience

5

1

-

Notes: -

Synopsis: 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

-

-

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/Drama

9

4

-

Notes: -

Synopsis: 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

-

-

-

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

-

Notes: -

Synopsis: -

Abbey Theatre, Peacock Stage, Dublin >>>

1988

-

in Frank McGuinness Plays 1, Faber & Faber, London

1988

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

Play/Drama

4

3

-

Notes: -

Synopsis: 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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-

Adaptation

6

3

extras

Notes: Original Playwright - Bertolt Brecht

Synopsis: 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

-

Faber and Faber, (not for commercial sale)

2007

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-

Play/Drama

4

3

-

Notes: 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.

Synopsis: -

Olivier Theatre, National Theatre, London >>>

2001

Conceived and commissioned by Angus Mackenchnie

-

-

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/Drama

8

5

-

Notes: -

Synopsis: 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

-

Faber & Faber, London

1996

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-

Adaptation

3

4

1b 1g

Notes: -

Synopsis: 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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-

Play/Drama

5

4

-

Notes: -

Synopsis: 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

-

Faber & Faber, London

1997

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-

Adaptation

4

6

-

Notes: -

Synopsis:

Abbey Theatre, Peacock Stage, Dublin >>>

1982

Abbey, Dublin

Monarch Line, Dublin

1982

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Comedy Drama

Comedy

2

5

-

Notes: -

Synopsis: 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

-

-

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

-

-

Notes: -

Synopsis: 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

-

-

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

-

Notes: -

Synopsis: -

Gate Theatre, Dublin >>>

2002

Gate Theatre

Faber & Faber, London

2002

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-

Play/Drama

3

2

-

Notes: -

Synopsis: 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

-

-

-

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

-

-

-

Notes: -

Synopsis: 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

-

-

-

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

-

Notes: Original Playwright - Henrik Ibsen

Synopsis: 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

-

-

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

-

-

Notes: -

Synopsis: -

Donmar Warehouse Theatre, London >>>

2004

-

-

-

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

Notes: -

Synopsis: 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

-

-

-

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

-

Notes: -

Synopsis: Revival

Lyric Theatre, Belfast, Ireland >>>

1991

Lyric Theatre

-

-

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

-

14

doubling possible

Notes: -

Synopsis: 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

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Play

Biographical

6

3

-

Notes: -

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

Arcola Theatre, London, EUR >>>

2008

-

-

-

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

-

-

-

Notes: Original Playwright - Henrik Ibsen

Synopsis: 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

-

-

-

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

-

Notes: -

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

Bewley's Cafe Theatre, Dublin >>>

1993

Project Arts Centre, Dublin >>>

-

-

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

-

Notes: from Pirandello

Synopsis: -

The Pit, London

1989

Royal Shakespeare Company >>>

Faber & Faber, London

1989

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-

Play/Drama

7

6

chorus

Notes: -

Synopsis: 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.

Theatre Royal Haymarket, London

2000

-

Faber & Faber, London

2003

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-

Adaptation

-

-

-

Notes: -

Synopsis: 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. She finds herself drawn to Jean, a footman with ambitions beyond his station. Throughout the night, while Jean's fiancée, Kristin, sleeps on oblivious, mistress and servant play an ever-more intense game of sexual politics until morning breaks into a tragic climax. Strindberg's shocking masterpiece, with its remarkable realism, contradictory characters and frank treatment of sexual desire, is one of the most important and influential works in modern drama. Its production was forbidden throughout much of Europe, including Britain, where the ban on public performances was not lifted until 1939.

Cottesloe Theatre, National Theatre, London >>>

1997

National Theatre, London >>>

Faber & Faber, London

1997

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-

Historical

8

4

-

Notes: -

Synopsis: Set in Ireland in the 16th century, Mutabilitie explores the area where myth meets and transforms reality and where the harshness of life is transmuted into hope by the chance meeting of a poet and a playwright.

Abbey Theatre, Peacock Stage, Dublin >>>

1985

-

Faber & Faber, London

1986

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-

Play/Drama

8

-

-

Notes: -

Synopsis: This play follows the experience of eight men who volunteer to serve in the 36th (Ulster) Division at the beginning of the First World War. It reaches a climax at the start of the terrible battle of the Somme on July 1, 1916, the actual anniversary of the battle of the Boyne in 1690. The Somme, where the Ulster Division suffered heavy casualties, has, like the Boyne, come to have a sacred place in the Loyalist Protestant mind. It marks the Union sealed with blood. It stands for the ultimate test of Ulster's loyalty; a blood-sacrifice to match any made by Irish nationalists.

Gate Theatre, Dublin >>>

1988

Gate Theatre

Faber & Faber, London

1990

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-

Adaptation

43

26

doubling possible

Notes: -

Synopsis: Peer Gynt is a young man who has great potential as an artist but who is constantly at war with his physical desires. Despite his quest for absolute purity he repeatedly falls for the fleshy temptations of compromise, as he swaggers and seduces his way from the fjords of Norway to the deserts of Africa and back. Along the way, he has a number of trials and adventures. He meets a young woman and they fall in love; he helps a bride escape from her wedding; he considers joining the Trolls; he becomes a successful businessman, loses it all, pretends to be an Arab prophet, and winds up in a lunatic asylum. Finally, he returns home to confront a creature called the Shadow, who has always been watching him and trying to teach him what it is to be human. It is the Shadow who forces Peer to consider returning to the woman he fell in love with so much earlier in the story, and pursue a career as an artist

Donmar Warehouse, London

2006

-

Faber & Faber, London

2006

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-

Play/Drama

3

5

-

Notes: Original Playwright - Jean Racine

Synopsis: Phaedra harbours an overwhelming, incestuous desire for her stepson, Hippolytus. In order to conceal the truth from her husband, she agrees to a terrible lie. The results are catastrophic

-

2005

-

-

-

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

8

4

-

Notes: from novel by Daphne Du Maurier

Synopsis: the road to Maderlay

Cottesloe Theatre, National Theatre, London >>>

1987

RNY

-

-

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

2

-

Notes: -

Synopsis:

Hampstead Theatre, London >>>

1992

Hamstead Theatre

Faber & Faber, London

1992

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