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Dermot Bolger

DERMOT BOLGER

  (1959 - )
Nationality:    Irish
email:    Click here to contact     Website:    Click here

Literary Agent:    Curtis Brown Group Ltd  

Born in Dublin in 1959, the poet, playwright and novelist Dermot Bolger has also worked as a factory hand, library assistant and publisher.

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

         . . .Scuffed Shoes         April Bright         Baby Jean         Blinded By the Light         Consenting Adults         Consequences Of Lightening, The         Dublin Bloom, A         From these Green Heights         Holy Ground, The         In High Germany         Lament For Arthur Cleary, The         Monolugues         One Last White Horse         Parting Glass, The         Passion Of Jerome, The         She Was Wearing. . .         Tea Chests and Dreams         Townlands Of Brazil, The         Ulysses         Walking the Road         Where Will We Go
. . .Scuffed Shoes

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:  1            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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April Bright

April Bright
When newly-weds Sean and anna move into a terraced house in Dublin, the lives of its previous owners and the tragedies that befell them continue to haunt the space.

Notes:
-

1st Produced:

Organisations:

1st Published:
Contained in "April Bright and Blinded By The Light" published by Nick Hern Books 1997   

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:
Black Farce Farce

Parts:
Male:  2            Female:  5            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Baby Jean

Synopsis:
A middle class couple are horrified when their teenage daughter becomes pregnant. They arrange for her to go to England for an abortion

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
BAC , London >>>     19 Mar 1996

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:  -            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Blinded By the Light

Blinded By the Light
Mormon missionaries scuttle ambition to be left alone and eat kebabs.

Notes:
-

1st Produced:

Organisations:

1st Published:
Contained in "April Bright and Blinded By The Light" published by Nick Hern Books 1997   

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:
Historical Drama

Parts:
Male:  11            Female:  2            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Consenting Adults

Synopsis:
Consenting adults tells the story of a couple who respond to a contact ad in a magazine and enter into a sexual adventure of role-playing and risk-taking in a hotel bedroom. the lines between fantasy, memory, reality and guilt become dangerously intertwined as true identities are slowly revealed.

Notes:
This play was originally produced, Along with five other one Act plays, As part of the Y2K Festival

1st Produced:
Civic Theatre, Dublin >>>     15 Feb 2000

Organisations:
fishamble

1st Published:
New Island Books, Dublin, 2001   

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:  1            Female:  1            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Consequences Of Lightening, The

Consequences Of Lightening, The
Welcome, earthlings, to Jeepers-Creepers-what-does-he-do-in-his-bedroom-all-day-long-dot-com. everything within Jeepers's walls, decorated with unfinished song lyrics, is safe, unlike the streets outside, where you can get your head kicked in for looking crossways at someone or not looking at all. From the safety of his bedroom, Jeepers welcomes you to Ballymun mid-regeneration, where horizons are ever changing, and a fresh start seems always just around the corner. If Jeepers are trapped inside his bedroom, others are also trapped by invisible walls of regrets, old hurts and unanswered questions. As Sam  the first tenant to move into the old tower blocks  dies, those touched by his life find themselves summed to his bedside. Frank, his successful son who turned his back on him forge a new identity; Katie, the unmarried mother whose life had seemed destined to intertwine with Frank; Anne, her young daughter whom Jeepers adores; Martin, a Jesuit in a torn jumper who has lived through every change in Ballymun. Awkwardly thrown together, they bid farewell to a drunken father, a good neighbour, a recovered alcoholic and a friend. But they bid farewell also to the tangled history of Ballymun that Sam lived through. To do so, they finally need to address unrequited love and unforgiven wrongs, during one last night when they learn that truth is rarely simple and that a sense of belonging is neither easily gained nor easily shaken off. the final part of Dermot Bolger's stunning Ballymun Trilogy, the Consequences of Lightning explores a new Ballymun and a new Ireland where old towers are replaced by the bricks and mortar of fresh relationships and by challenges that separate those who have  and those who have not  been able to face up to the consequences of the past and to leave it truly behind.

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
Axis Art Centre, Ballymun, Dublin     25 Nov 2008

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
in the Ballymun Trilogy, New Island Books (1 Mar 2010)   

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:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Dublin Bloom, A

Dublin Bloom, A
I am a fool perhaps. Boylan gets the plums and I the plum stones. My youth. Never again. Gibraltar. evenings like this looking out over the sea, she told me, but clear, no clouds. Said she always thought she'd marry a lord or a gentleman with a private yacht. Why me?' While his wife Molly waits in bed for the infamous Blazes Boylan, Leopold Bloom is in Dublin conversing in pubs, graveyards, press rooms, brothels. . . and then home

Notes:
Freely Adapted for the stage from the novel by James Joyce. In 1994 Dermot Bolger was commissioned by the Rosenbach Museum (which holds Joyce's original manuscript of Ulysses) to Adapt the novel Ulysses for the stage As the centrepiece of Philadelphia's celebration of the 90th Bloomsday. A Dublin Bloom is the text of that commission, A Dramatic dream-like recreation of Mr. Bloom's journey through that most significant Dublin day.

1st Produced:
Annenberg Centre, The University Of Pennsylvania, Usa     16 Jun 1994

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
New Island Books, Dublin, 1994   

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:  6            Female:  4            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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From these Green Heights

Synopsis:
This play follows the story of Dessie from the 1960's, when as a child he first glimpsed the Ballymun Towers amid the fields of North Dublin, to the night in 2004 when he helps his young daughter pack to leave the flat that has been his family home.

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
Axis Art Centre, Ballymun, Dublin     2004

Organisations:
aXIS - Ballymun Arts and Community Resource Centre

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:  6            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Holy Ground, The

Synopsis:
With bittersweet humor, Monica, a recent widow, tries to come to terms with the sadness of her marriage to a man who couldn't give her children. Unable to face the stigma of being a childless couple in post-colonial Catholic Ireland, Monica's husband, Myles, grows increasingly cruel and distant, rejecting her physically and emotionally. Now, as she empties the house of his papers and possessions, Monica relives their lives together, a life that began with such tender promise. With heart-rending honesty, she recounts the pain and confusion, the long empty years of loneliness and, in a chilling finale, her own tragic act of desperation. But how will she live her life from now on? Will she be able to loosen the grip of ideological rigor mortis? What identity, if any, can she forge for herself? With his often-elliptical wit Bolger manages to make the play's stultifying marriage stand for much more than a domestic sorry tale. a metaphor for Ireland itself and for what it means to be Irish, the Holy Ground sheds ironic light on such traditional virtues as staying in place, maintaining traditions, and holding fast to certain religious beliefs. In the course of the one-hour play Bolger deconstructs the nationalist myth of the submissive, suffering, maternal Irish woman.

Notes:
the Holy Ground was originally produced Alongside 'In High Germany' (listed separately) under the umbrElla title of ''the Tramway end', An evening of two one Act plays by Dermot Bolger'

1st Produced:

Organisations:
Gate Theatre

1st Published:
in Dermot Bolger Plays 1, Methuen, London, 2000   

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:  1            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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In High Germany

In High Germany
Set during the 1988 european Football Championships, In High Germany explores the dilEmma facing Irish international soccer fans who live outside Ireland and for whom following Ireland on their european excursions has become a matter of personal as well as national identity. the play looks past the ole mania to explore the lonely, surreal and increasingly sad dilEmma of the best pals who now see each other only at internationals and part company at railway stations, pensiones or cafes to return to their new lives and new homes abroad.

Notes:
-

1st Produced:

Organisations:
Gate Theatre

1st Published:
New Island Books (30 Oct 1999)   

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:  1            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Lament For Arthur Cleary, The

Lament For Arthur Cleary, The
an examination of Ireland in the 1980s - its moneylenders, its unemployment, its exhausting and debilitating emigration.

Notes:
-

1st Produced:

Organisations:
Wet Paint Arts

1st Published:
in A Dublin Quartet, Penguin Books Ltd (15 Jun 1992)   

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:  2            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Monolugues

Synopsis:
-

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
-     1990

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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One Last White Horse

One Last White Horse
there's a hole in Eddie's heart, the void - filled as a child by his mother's God - that is perhaps at the heart of the contemporary experience, the inability to find anything to fully believe in of belong to. That spiritual vacuum is finally filled for him with heroin, the drug which a whole generation of lost Dubliners turned to.

Notes:
-

1st Produced:

Organisations:

1st Published:
in A Dublin Quartet, Penguin Books Ltd (15 Jun 1992)   

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:  3            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Parting Glass, The

Parting Glass, The
This show is part of the undergroundzero festival. Here's the official blurb: Three friends all pushing 50 gather in the Stade de France on November 18, 2009 to cheer on Ireland in the World Cup playoff, only to see their hopes of a championship dashed by French soccer star Thierry Henry's left hand. With caustic wit, Irish playwright Dermot Bolger gives sharp insights into the last two decades of Irish history through these stories.
- nytheatre.com

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
Axis Art Centre, Ballymun, Dublin     21 Jul 2010

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
New Island Books (1 Jun 2011)   

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:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Passion Of Jerome, The

Passion Of Jerome, The
Jerome Furlong is a successful businessman whose life has been carefully constructed from layer upon layer of lies. That is until, in the squalid flat he is using to have an affair, he is suddenly confronted with a manifestation of the supernatural beyond both his comprehension and control.

Notes:
-

1st Produced:

Organisations:

1st Published:
Methuen Drama (22 Feb 1999)   

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:  8            Female:  3            Other:  doubling possible

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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Tea Chests and Dreams

Synopsis:
the experiences of moving house

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
Axis Ballymun Arts And Community Resource Centre     11 Apr 2012

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:
Drama

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  2            Other:  doubling

Further Reference:
-

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Townlands Of Brazil, The

Synopsis:
-

Notes:
(Axis, Ballymun, 2006/National theatre of Poland, 2007)

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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Ulysses

Ulysses
I am a fool perhaps. Boylan gets the plums and I get the plum stones. My youth. Never again. Gibraltar. Evenings like this looking out over the sea, she told me, but clear, no clouds. Said she always thought she'd marry a lord or a gentleman with a private yacht. Why me?' While his wife Molly waits in bed for the infamous Blazes Boylan, Leopold Bloom is in Dublin conversing in pubs, graveyards, brothels and finally home. Bawdy and hilarious, Ulysses celebrates Joyce's genius for depicting life in all its profundity.

Notes:
by James Joyce, adapted for the Stage by Dermot Bolger

1st Produced:
Paterson's Land, Edinburgh Festival Fringe     01 Aug 2013

Organisations:
Tron Theatre Company

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:
drama, theatre 2 hours 20 minutes

Parts:
Male:  5            Female:  3            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Walking the Road

Walking the Road
Dermot Bolger's play, Walking the Road, is an act of repatriation for Ireland's forgotten heroes, seeking to give voice to men whose lives and untimely deaths have traditionally undermined the linear narrative of nationalist Irish history. But like thousands of fellow Irishmen who died in that war, he was condemned to another limbo, the limbo of never having their stories publicly told. Hovering in the half-light of memories, it vividly and imaginatively tries to follow Ledwidge on one final journey after his death as he finds himself once again walking the road that he once walked. Unseen, they walk alongside him, but where are they walking to and will any of them ever reach home?
- press release

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
Axis Art Centre, Ballymun, Dublin     2007

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
New Island Books (10 July 2007)   

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:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Where Will We Go

Synopsis:
Part of Tiny Plays for Ireland: Fishamble, in partnership with the Irish Times, asked the Irish public what can be achieved with three minutes of stage time, what are the issues that need to be addressed, and who are the people that should be brought to life in the theatre? Fishamble received over 1,700 plays from every county in Ireland and many countries beyond. Tiny Plays for Ireland combines selected works by members of the public and dramas by some of Ireland's best loved writers to provide one dramatic picture of Ireland at the crossroads.

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:
short play

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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