Book description
This collection brings together three of Tom Murphy's finest plays,
Famine, A Whistle in the Dark and Conversations on a Homecoming.
Together, they tell the story of Irish emigration - of those who went
and those who were left behind. Crossing oceans and spanning decades,
Murphy's three plays cover the period from the Great Hunger of the
nineteenth century to the 'new' Ireland of the 1970s, exploring what we
mean when we call a place 'home'. Conversations on a Homecoming: County
Galway, 1970s. Even the humblest of small-town pubs can be a magnet for
dreamers. Michael, after a ten-year absence, suddenly returns from New
York and has a reunion with old friends, in that same pub 'The White
House'. A Whistle in the Dark: Coventry, 1960 Irish emigrants, the
uprooted Carney family, adapt aggressively to life in an English city.
Famine: County Mayo, 1846 In Glanconnor village in the west of Ireland,
the second crop of potatoes fails. The community now faces the real
prospect of starvation. With an introduction by Dr Patrick Lonergan, NUI
Galway DruidMurphy, presented by Druid in a co-production with
Quinnipiac University Connecticut, NUI Galway, Lincoln Center Festival
and Galway Arts Festival, marks a major celebration of one of Ireland's
most respected living dramatists and toured Ireland, London and the US
in 2012. Tom Murphy is considered by many to be Ireland's greatest
playwright. He has written twenty-five plays and has received numerous
awards and nominations. Throughout his career, he has worked closely
with the Abbey Theatre in Dublin and with Druid Theatre in Galway. His
first successful play, A Whistle in the Dark, was performed at the
Theatre Royal, Stratford East in 1961 where it caused great controversy.
A major restrospective of his work was presented at the Abbey Theatre in
2001. He has published six play collections with Methuen Drama in the
Contemporary Dramatists series.
