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Sebastian Barry

SEBASTIAN BARRY

  (1955 - )
Nationality:    Irish
email:    n/a     Website:    Click here

Literary Agent:    Independent Talent Group Limited  

Sebastian Barry was born in Dublin in 1955. His novels and plays have won, among other awards, the Kerry Group Irish Fiction Prize, the Costa Book of the Year award, the Irish Book Awards Best Novel, the Independent Booksellers Prize and the James Tait Black Memorial Prize. He also had two consecutive novels, A Long Long Way (2005) and The Secret Scripture(2008), shortlisted for the MAN Booker Prize. He lives in Wicklow with his wife and three children.

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below is a list of Sebastian Barry's plays - click on a Play Title for more information

         . . .a green jersey         Andersen's English         Boss Grady's Boys         Chain Play, The         Dallas Sweetman         Fred And Jane         Hinterland         House Of Bernarda Alba, The         On Blueberry Hill         Only True History Of Lizzie Finn, The         Our Lady Of Sligo         Pentagonal Dream, The         Prayers Of Skerkin         Pride Of Parnell Street, The         She Was Wearing. . .         Steward Of Christendom, The         Tales Of Ballycumber         Varieties Of Weeping         Watercolourist, The         Whistling Psyche         White Woman Street
. . .a green jersey

Synopsis:
-

Notes:
Part of "She Was Wearing" short monologues for Amensty's Stop Violence Against Women

1st Produced:
-    

Organisations:
Fishamble

1st Published:
-   

Music:
-

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

Booksellers:

Genre:
Short monologue

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  1            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Andersen's English

Andersen's English
about an imagined meeting between Victorian english novelist Charles Dickens and danish fairytale writer hans Christian andersen.

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
Theatre Royal, Bury St Edmunds     11 Feb 2010

Organisations:
Hampstead Theatre and Out of Joint

1st Published:

Music:
-

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

Booksellers:

Genre:
Play/Drama

Parts:
Male:  3            Female:  4            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Boss Grady's Boys

Synopsis:
Mick and Josey are two ould fellas employed on a hill-farm on the Cork-Kerry border, still dreaming of the Wild West and freedom

Notes:
-

1st Produced:

Organisations:

1st Published:
Raven Arts press, Dublin, 1989   

Music:
-

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

Booksellers:

Genre:
Play/Drama

Parts:
Male:  4            Female:  4            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Chain Play, The

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

Notes:
-

1st Produced:

Organisations:
Conceived and commissioned by angus Mackenchnie

1st Published:
-   

Music:
-

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

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Genre:
Play/Drama

Parts:
Male:  8            Female:  5            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Dallas Sweetman

Synopsis:
a play of truth and forgiveness - the first contmporary Drama to be part of the Canterbury Cathedral's tradition of commissioning plays for the cathederal's spaces

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
Canterbury Cathedral / Touring     2008

Organisations:
in association with Paines Plough

1st Published:
Faber and Faber, London, 2008   

Music:
-

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

Booksellers:

Genre:
Play/Drama

Parts:
Male:  2            Female:  3            Other:  doubling

Further Reference:
-

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Fred And Jane

Fred And Jane
Fred and Jane explores the deep and sustaining friendship between two nuns, anna and Beatrice, as they recall the trials and joys of religious life.

Notes:
-

1st Produced:

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
Faber and Faber, London, 2004   

Music:
-

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

Booksellers:

Genre:
One act

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  2            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Hinterland

Synopsis:
Johnny Silvester, is a disgraced Irish elder statesman facing a tribunal's charges of corruption. But, as he sits in his Georgian mansion in the Dublin hinterland, he confronts more immediate accusers. His wife never lets him forget his 15 years of sexual infidelity. His once brilliant son has turned into a suicidal depressive. an undergraduate interviewer taunts him with betrayal of his country. a ghostly politician thrice emerges Banquo-like from the bookcase to promise that the fires of hell are being stoked against his arrival.

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
Octagon Theatre, Bolton, Uk     2002

Organisations:

1st Published:
Faber and Faber, London, 2002   

Music:
-

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

Booksellers:

Genre:
Political Play

Parts:
Male:  4            Female:  3            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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House Of Bernarda Alba, The

Synopsis:
In rural Spain, five daughters exist in a cloistered household managed by their widowed mother and demented grandmother. the mother enforces an eight year mourning period, and tensions build.

Notes:
Original Playwright - Federico Garcia Lorca

1st Produced:

Organisations:

1st Published:
-   

Music:
-

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

Booksellers:

Genre:
adaptation

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  20            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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On Blueberry Hill

On Blueberry Hill
PJ and Christy: sworn enemies destined to share one small room for twenty years. As the two men recall the joys and torments of life outside  the childhood excursions, a deadly brawl, past loves and summer dresses  slowly they uncover the tragic events that have lead them to their cell in Montjoy. A play that explores our capacity to commit the deadliest of crimes but also our capacity for survival, reconciliation and love.

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
Pavilion Theatre, Dun Laoghaire as part of the Dublin Theatre Festival     27 Sep 2017

Organisations:
Fishample

1st Published:

Music:
-

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

Booksellers:

Genre:
Play/Drama

Parts:
Male:  2            Female:  -            Other:  1 voice

Further Reference:
-

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Only True History Of Lizzie Finn, The

Only True History Of Lizzie Finn, The
Lizzie, performing in Weston-super-Mare, is wooed in unorthodox, even distracted fashion by a fellow Kerryman returned from the Boer War and haunted by his experiences in Africa. Won over by his 'wildness', it is only on her arrival in Ireland that she realises he is of the landlord class, one of those whose rent demands led to her own family's rootlessness. the Only True History of Lizzie Finn examines the social and religious prejudices in Ireland of the 1890s in a powerful human history. Like the colourful heroes of the Old West, Barry's young lovers write their private histories of adventure, romance and new beginnings

Notes:
-

1st Produced:

Organisations:

1st Published:

Music:
-

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

Booksellers:

Genre:
Play/Drama

Parts:
Male:  17            Female:  4            Other:  doubling possible

Further Reference:
-

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Our Lady Of Sligo

Our Lady Of Sligo
From her hospital bed in 1950's Dublin, Mai O'Hara recalls her life through morphine-induced memories and hallucinations. Dying of liver cancer caused by alcoholism, Mai reminisces on her youthful promise as a member of the Galway bourgeoisie; the death of one of her children; and of the marriage fueled by liquor, bickering, and remorse, to her husband, Jack-who visits her on occasion as does her daughter, Joanie. Jack's visits to her bedside are a testament to the mutual hatred they share and the mutual dependence they have on each other. Through it all, Mai uses her mordant wit and vanity to pull her out of painful realizations. Once the first woman in Sligo to wear trousers, Mai emerges not only the victim of a broken marriage but a victim of an Ireland in which the Catholic middle-class has been nullified by spiritual and political isolation after the Civil War.

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
Playhouse, Oxford     1998

Organisations:

1st Published:

Music:
-

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

Booksellers:

Genre:
Play/Drama

Parts:
Male:  2            Female:  4            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Pentagonal Dream, The

Synopsis:
In the Pentagonal Dream a single figure speaks with five separate male voices. the voices do not talk directly to one another and appear to be different people, but each is a strand of the whole man. each voice tries to explain, justify and in the end, understand. the voices can be identified by their order of appearance: Father, Murderer, Storyteller, Fetishist and Messiah/anti-Christ.

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
The Damer Hall, St. Stephen's Green, Dublin     1986

Organisations:
Operating Theatre

1st Published:
-   

Music:
-

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

Booksellers:

Genre:
Physical/Devised theatre Piece

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  1            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Prayers Of Skerkin

Synopsis:
marks the end of an english culture in Ireland

Notes:
-

1st Produced:

Organisations:

1st Published:

Music:
-

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

Booksellers:

Genre:
Play/Drama

Parts:
Male:  7            Female:  5            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Pride Of Parnell Street, The

Synopsis:
a pair of interwoven monologues. a Dublin couple's marriage has fallen apart following an unchar¬acteristic bout of domestic violence on his part. She - Janet -has blocked him out of her life, but never moved on with it; he -Joe - has sunk, through further violence, heroin-addiction and AIDS, to the depths of incarcerated loneliness.
- Dominic Cavendish, Daily Telegraph

Notes:
-

1st Produced:

Organisations:
fishamble

1st Published:
-   

Music:
-

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

Booksellers:

Genre:
Play/Drama

Parts:
Male:  1            Female:  1            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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She Was Wearing. . .

Synopsis:
different items of clothing inspire different interconnecting monologues

Notes:
a series of short, interconnecting monologues specially commissioned in response to Amnesty International's Stop Violence Against Women Campaign written by Sebastian Barry, Maeve Binchy, Dermot Bolger, Michael Collins, StElla Feehily, Rosalind Haslett, Roisin Ingle, Marian Keyes And Gavin Kostick.

1st Produced:
Smock Alley Theatre & Studio (Formerly Known As Ss Michael & John's Church And Buildings)     05 Mar 2005

Organisations:
fishamble

1st Published:
-   

Music:
-

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

Booksellers:

Genre:
Play One act

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  -            Other:  1 performer

Further Reference:
-

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Steward Of Christendom, The

Steward Of Christendom, The
the fifth play in a cycle of plays about the author's Irish family, the STeWaRD OF CHRISTeNDOM is a freely imagined portrait of the author's great-grandfather, Thomas Dunne, the last Chief Superintendent of the Dublin Metropolitan Police, an organization devoted to the British crown but then disbanded after the Irish war of independence of the 1920s. Considered by some to be a traitor to Ireland, and after some seven years of confinement in the County Home, Dunne is a broken man, both mentally and physically. alone in a barren room, barely clothed and in little control of his faculties, Dunne, at 75, reenacts scenes from his past, taking refuge in the memory of his three daughters and a son who died in World War I. the parallels between Dunne's family life and the political life of Ireland are all too apparent. Chaos and murder resulted from the revolution, and Dunne could only stand watching as his way of understanding the world dissolved. Similarly, he was an aloof Father who couldn't tell his son how much

Notes:
-

1st Produced:

Organisations:

1st Published:

Music:
-

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

Booksellers:

Genre:
Play/Drama

Parts:
Male:  5            Female:  4            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Tales Of Ballycumber

Tales Of Ballycumber
a young man approaches an older friend to ask advice on courting. Next day he is found shot and dying with a cryptic suicide note in his hand

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
Abbey Theatre, Dublin     07 Oct 2009

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
Faber and Faber, London    

Music:
-

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

Booksellers:

Genre:
-

Parts:
Male:  3            Female:  2            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Varieties Of Weeping

Synopsis:
-

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
-    

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
-   

Music:
-

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

Booksellers:

Genre:
-

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Watercolourist, The

Watercolourist, The
-

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
-    

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
Colin Smythe 1983   

Music:
-

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

Booksellers:

Genre:
-

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Whistling Psyche

Whistling Psyche
a dark night, an old waiting room and two supposed strangers eager to reach their destinations. In the cold hours that rest between nightfall and daybreak, silent questions prompt unexpected revelations. Two souls share a passion for reform, but only one - Miss Nightingale - has been honoured. the other, Dr Barry, would never receive the same acclaim, but notoriety came after death and for a very different reason . . .

Notes:
-

1st Produced:

Organisations:
Bush Theatre

1st Published:
Faber and Faber, London, 2004   

Music:
-

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

Booksellers:

Genre:
Play/Drama

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  2            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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White Woman Street

White Woman Street
irony of Irish natives, dispossessed on this side of the Atlantic, slaughtering and dispossessing Native Americans on the other. Trooper O'Hara leaves Ireland after the 1916 easter Rising for the plains of Ohio

Notes:
-

1st Produced:

Organisations:
-

1st Published:

Music:
-

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

Booksellers:

Genre:
Play/Drama

Parts:
Male:  6            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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