doollee banner
The Playwrights Database
contact doollee


Deirdre Kinahan

DEIRDRE KINAHAN

  
Nationality:    Irish
email:    n/a     Website:    n/a

Literary Agent:    Curtis Brown Group Ltd  USA agent International Creative Management

Deirdre Kinahan is a Dublin-based playwright and Theatre producer who founded and runs the production company Tall Tales. Her work is regularly performed internationally and includes the critically acclaimed Moment, Bogboy and Hue & Cry.

Buy Plays with Doollee

Each page of doollee.com has links to play/book outlets, either directly to the Publisher, through Stageplays.com and Amazon to the second hand and 1st editions of AbeBooks. These links will automatically take you to the relevant area obviating the need for further search.
AbeBooks.co.uk   AbeBooks.com   Stageplays.com   amazon.com   amazon.co.uk   amazon.ca
whether you are a Playwright who wishes to make their entry definitive, an unlisted Playwright or a User with a tale to tell - we want to hear from you.
download WORD submission template

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

         Attaboy, Mr Synge!         Be Carna         Bogboy         Broken         Crossings         Fingers Of Faversham, The         Halcyon Days         Hue And Cry         Knocknashee         Maisy Daly's Rainbow         Melody         Moment         Passage         Rathmines Road         Rebecca's Robin         Rum And Raisin         Snow Child, The         Spinning         Summer Fruits         Tale Of the Blue Eyed Cat, The         These Halcyon Days         Transgressor, The         Where's My Seat?         Wild Sky
Attaboy, Mr Synge!

Synopsis:
an am-dram group rehearsing Playboy of the Western World encounter a graduate o the Maureen thomas ecole de theatre.

Notes:
-

1st Produced:

Organisations:
Civic 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:
Comedy

Parts:
Male:  2            Female:  3            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

Top of Page Top of Page

Be Carna

Synopsis:
five women explore the lives of Dublin prostitutes

Notes:
-

1st Produced:

Organisations:
Tall Tales 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:
Play/Drama

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  5            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

Top of Page Top of Page

Bogboy

Synopsis:
BogBoy interweaves the stories of three people disappeared through the cracks of Irish Society: a young boy from Belfast, a struggling Dublin heroin addict and a reclusive local farmer.
- nytheatre.com

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
Irish Arts Center
553 West 51st Street, New York, NY 10019     19/2011

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:  2            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

Top of Page Top of Page

Broken

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:
-

Top of Page Top of Page

Crossings

Crossings
Badgersbridge Village Hall 1919 is Margaret's domain. Grace arrives. She was in love with Margaret's brother. They form an alliance. 2019 Mirjana is trying to get Sean's mother into a care home

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
-    

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
Nick Hern Books 2018   

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 with music

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

Top of Page Top of Page

Fingers Of Faversham, The

Synopsis:
the play features an amdram company of long standing that is going off the rails. For some unexplained reason, its moving force Margery, played by Francesca annis, has recruited a new director Nina Sosanya's Denise to create Wind in the Willows within a thrust. the in-jokes abound as this dedicated, young auteur viciously deconstructs Kenneth Grahame's classic in a fashion that seems all too believable.
- Philip Fisher, British theatre Guide

Notes:
part of Where's My Seat?

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:
short comedy

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

Top of Page Top of Page

Halcyon Days

Halcyon Days
An uplifting, bittersweet Drama set in a nursing home, celebrating friendship and the human spirit. A nursing-home conservatory. Sean sits alone, abandoned to his memories. In storms Patricia, a feisty woman with a zest for life and for handsome men in wheelchairs. A wary intimacy develops between the two, an unforeseen relationship, by turns charming and combative, tender and funny. Infused with wry humour and humanity, Deirdre Kinahan's Halcyon Days is a celebration of our quest for meaning in even the most seemingly hopeless of circumstances.

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
Smock Alley Theatre, Dublin     10 Oct 2012

Organisations:
Tall Tales 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:
modern Drama

Parts:
Male:  1            Female:  1            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

Top of Page Top of Page

Hue And Cry

Synopsis:
a couple of Dublin cousins reunited at a family funeral

Notes:
-

1st Produced:

Organisations:
Tall Tales Theatre Company

1st Published:
3 new Plays by Irish Women, Liberties Press, Dublin, 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:
One act

Parts:
Male:  2            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

Top of Page Top of Page

Knocknashee

Synopsis:
celebration of Irish paganism

Notes:
-

1st Produced:

Organisations:
Tall Tales 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:
Play/Drama

Parts:
Male:  2            Female:  1            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

Top of Page Top of Page

Maisy Daly's Rainbow

Synopsis:
a wizardly fusion of dance and theatre featuring a local witch and a magnificent rainbow.

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
Solstice Arts Centre, Navasn, Co. Meath     04 Dec 2008

Organisations:
Tall Tales 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:
Youth audience

Parts:
Male:  2            Female:  4            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

Top of Page Top of Page

Melody

Melody
When Mr Kane and Kathleen meet eating lunch on a park bench, they end up sharing more than just their sandwiches; together, they learn to accept the blessings and face the challenges of love.

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
Temple Bar Information Centre And The Lab, Dublin     2005

Organisations:
Tall Tales Theatre Company

1st Published:
Samuel French 2016   

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:
40 min One act

Parts:
Male:  1            Female:  1            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

Top of Page Top of Page

Moment

Moment
On a seemingly ordinary evening an Irish family sit down to tea. the difference tonight is that Nial is home - back from prison having committed a dark crime many years earlier with some news to share and a conscience to clear. Fast, witty and frighteningly real, Moment takes you on journey through trauma wrapped up in tablecloths and teacake and asks what happens to a family when a child is killed and how does it feel when it's your child that does the killing?

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
Solstice Arts Centre, Navasn, Co. Meath     13 Nov 2009

Organisations:
a Tall Tales Theatre Company and Solstice Arts Centre production

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:  5            Other:  -

Further Reference:
TR  31/2011  215

Top of Page Top of Page

Passage

Passage
two Irish women exploring familial relationships following the death of the estranged mother of one of them.

Notes:
-

1st Produced:

Organisations:
Tall Tales Theatre Company

1st Published:
Contained in: Queer Notions: New Plays and Performances From Ireland" published by Cork University Press 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. - - Lesbian, full length

Parts:
Male:  1            Female:  4            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

Top of Page Top of Page

Rathmines Road

Rathmines Road
An accusation of sexual assault

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
-    

Organisations:
Fishamble

1st Published:
Nick Hern Books 2018   

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:  2            Female:  3            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

Top of Page Top of Page

Rebecca's Robin

Synopsis:
a little girl follows a robin in a magical search for a missing family

Notes:
-

1st Produced:

Organisations:
Bewley's Cafe 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:
youth audiences One act

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  1            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

Top of Page Top of Page

Rum And Raisin

Synopsis:
two middle aged Irish women explore new passions influenced by the Tango

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
Ss Michael And John, Dublin     2003

Organisations:
Tall Tales 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:
Play/Drama

Parts:
Male:  1            Female:  1            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

Top of Page Top of Page

Snow Child, The

Synopsis:
adaptation of an old Russian Fairytale with snowchild and an old couple and their consequential problems.

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
Ramor Theatre, Virginia, Co. Cavan, Ireland     08 Dec 2005

Organisations:
Livin' Dred 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:
Youth audience One act

Parts:
Male:  1            Female:  2            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

Top of Page Top of Page

Spinning

Spinning
Connor's life is disintegrating before his eyes. Susan wants to know why her teenage daughter is dead

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
Dublin Theatre Festival     2014

Organisations:
Fishamble

1st Published:
Nick Hern Books 2014   

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:  1            Female:  3            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

Top of Page Top of Page

Summer Fruits

Synopsis:
monologue of the tribulations of a woman who thinks the whole world is conspiring against her.

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
Dublin Writers Museum     2001

Organisations:
Tall Tales 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:
Play One act

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  1            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

Top of Page Top of Page

Tale Of the Blue Eyed Cat, The

Synopsis:
adaptation of enid Blyton's story of mary Spratt

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
Ramor Theatre, Virginia, Co. Cavan, Ireland     08 Dec 2005

Organisations:
Livin' Dred 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:
Youth audience One act

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  2            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

Top of Page Top of Page

These Halcyon Days

Synopsis:
It took a while, but they found each other. Sean sits alone in a nursing-home conservatory, abandoned to his memories when in storms Patricia, a feisty woman with a zest for life and handsome men in wheelchairs. A wary intimacy soon develops between the two, an unforeseen relationship by turns charming and combative, tender and funny.

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
Dublin Theatre Festival     01 Sep 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:
70 min play

Parts:
Male:  1            Female:  1            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

Top of Page Top of Page

Transgressor, The

Transgressor, The
the King James Version of the Bible (KJV) is a foundation stone of the english language. the KJV was composed as a collective project and written to be spoken. Sixty-Six Books has been created, in the spirit of the original, in the same way. Pulpit to print; stage to page; mediated through many forms oral and written, the KJV has, since its inception, been a fundamental part of written and spoken english.This is a work that has travelled to every continent of the globe. It has been shared as a melodic instrument of inspiration, illumination and mutual understanding; and it has also been wielded as a tool of colonial oppression. Sixty-Six Books is a fresh interpretation of the KJV for the new millennium, celebrating and challenging the traditions and achievements of this great work on the occasion of its 400th anniversary. the curators of this project have gathered together a formidable and inspiring line-up of the best established and emerging writing talent to produce a new version of the KJV for thetwenty-first century. each writer has created anew a book of the KJV - as prose, poetry, Drama, performance, song, or ground-breaking digital form. each writer has spoken back to the KJV with untrammeled inventiveness of the imagination. the voices of Sixty-Six Books, drawn from across five continents, innovate, transmute, transpose, reinvent and talk back to four hundredyears of history. all the works that make up Sixty-Six Books are written to be spoken. Culminating in major performance events at the Bush theatre and Westminster abbey in 2011 in London, Sixty-Six Books is a contribution towards the mutual curiosity, tolerance, and force of collective enterprise and shared humanity that characterizes the international and ancient Arts of writing and spoken performance

Notes:
Part of Sixty-Six Books: 21st-century writers speak to the King James Bible. Play is A response to the King James Bible book of Galatians

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:
piece

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

Top of Page Top of Page

Where's My Seat?

Synopsis:
One new theatre, three experts, three playwrights and you. as the Bush prepares to open the doors of our new home in autumn this year, we're asking you to test drive the space and be a part of its transformation from library to theatre. Over the course of one evening, you'll see three short plays by three hot Bush playwrights performed in three different layouts. each play will be inspired by nine curious props chosen by the National theatre and a set of challenging stage directions created by Alan ayckbourn, Michael Grandage and Bush artistic Director Josie Rourke. as the stage transforms and the seats move around, we'll ask you to feedback your views from the stalls - and to put to test other areas of the building from the bathrooms to the bar. Part of the Bush's 32 Degree West Season - the angle from the front door of our old home of 39 years to our new home at 7 Uxbridge Road

Notes:
written by Deirdre Kinahan, Jack Thorne And Tom Wells

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:
short plays

Parts:
Male:  3            Female:  3            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

Top of Page Top of Page

Wild Sky

Synopsis:
WILD SKY tells the story of a blighted love story between Tom Farrell and Josie Dunne, two young friends from Slane, County Meath. Tom has loved Josie since he was six years old but Josie loves his best friend Mike Lowrey. The three grow up together and become caught up in a maelstrom of influences that bubble beneath the surface of an apparently settled, loyal and conservative county on the boarder of Dublin. Mike, a committed Redmondite joins up with the British Army believing that Irish Independence will be won in that war whilst Josie gets involved with Inghinidhe na h'Eireann and the Irish Women's Suffrage League. Tom, the least political of the three, makes the decision to join the rebels in Dublin at Easter 1916. Kinahan's script charts the radicalisation of a generation through the small cultural, national and sporting movements that flourished in Ireland at the turn of the twentieth century, skillfully recounting the events leading up to and including the capture and siege of the GPO using the voices of two rural youth who are drawn into the momentous events of their age. While clearly historical in its telling the play with its themes youth, war and political idealism also resonates in the contemporary world. The play is intertwined and underscored by a suite of original songs by Grammy Award Winning Singer Susan McKeown including her settings of poems from that time and songs by Irish composers of 1916-1917 and performed live by Mary Murray. WILD SKY is directed by celebrated theatre director Jo Mangan and features Irish Times Award Winning Actress Caitriona Ennis and Ian Toner.

Notes:
-

1st Produced:

Organisations:
Ten42Productions

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:  1            Female:  1            Other:  singer

Further Reference:
-

Top of Page Top of Page