Contemporary Irish Plays showcases the new drama that has emerged since 2008. Featuring a blend of established and emerging writers, the anthology shows how Irish writers are embracing new methods of theatre-making to explore exciting new themes - while also finding new ways to come to terms with the legacies of the Troubles and the Celtic Tiger. The Last Days of a Reluctant Tyrant tells the tragic story of a family disintegrating, having lost its moral values. Written by leading Irish playwright Tom Murphy, it was produced at the Abbey Theatre in June 2009. Drum Belly is a fascinating play about the Irish mafia in late 1960s' New York. It premiered at the Abbey Theatre in 2012. Previously unpublished, Planet Belfast by Rosemary Jenkinson is about a woman named Alice - Stormont's only Green MLA who must toe a delicate line between large, sectarian power bases in order to promote an environmental agenda in Northern Ireland. Forgotten features the interconnecting stories of four elderly people living in retirement homes and care facilities around Ireland, who range in age from 80 to 100 years old.Desolate Heaven is a story about two young girls hoping to find freedom from home in the trappings of love. It was first performed at Theatre 503, London, in 2013 Written for the 2012 Dublin Theatre Festival, and previously unpublished, The Boys of Foley Street by Louise Lowe is a piece of site-specific theatre which led audience members on a tour of the backstreets of inner-city Dublin. Freefall is a sharp, humorous and exhilarating look at the fragility of a human life, blending impressionistic beauty, poignancy and comedy. Edited by the leading scholar on Irish theatre, Patrick Lonergan, Contemporary Irish Plays is a timely reminder of the long-held tradition and strength of Irish theatre which blossoms even in its new-found circumstances.

Silent is the touching and provocative story of homeless McGoldrig who once had splendid things. But he has lost it all - including his mind. He now dives into the wonderful wounds of his past through the romantic world of Rudolph Valentino. Silent has been described as 'a moving story, which, until its end, pulses with the erratic noise of life' (Irish Times), 'a must see if ever there was one' (The List), and as 'magnificent, remarkable' (Irish Independent). By the same writer, Forgotten features the interconnecting stories of four elderly people living in retirement homes and care facilities around Ireland, who range in age from 80 to 100 years old. Both challengingly dark and startlingly hilarious, Forgotten is 'an unequivocally beautiful piece' (Scotsman), 'beautifully written and vivid' (New Yorker), conveying 'the secrets, the hidden past, of the aged, and the dignity often behind their quaint seemingly innocuous bearing' (New York Times). Forgotten was produced by Fishamble: The New Play Company at over sixty Irish venues, in eight European countries, and in three US cities between 2007 and 2012. Silent was originally produced in 2011, also by Fishamble, winning the Scotsman Fringe First and the Herald Angel awards at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, and the Argus Angel at the Brighton Festival 2012, as well as touring Ireland, Paris, Edinburgh, Los Angeles and New York. 'Kinevane has an extremely acute, innate and intuitive sense of comedy that enable him to tightrope across the gross and heartbreaking circumstances of life, in jest without sacrificing the poignant sadness of a given predicament' Irish Theatre Magazine

Some folk are impossible to buy for. Mama said it's because they are usually the ones who are impossible to know... Before is set in Clerys of Dublin, on the very day this iconic department store shuts - for good. Pontius is inside, trying to choose a gift for his estranged daughter, whom he hasn't seen for almost 20 years. He will meet her in an hour. This father's journey is both beautiful and strange, from the isolation of his Midlands home to the madness of O'Connell Street. Before is a new play with much music, which follows the runaway international success of Fishamble's Pat Kinevane Trilogy (Forgotten, Silent and Underneath), which have won Olivier, Scotsman Fringe First, Herald Angel, Argus Angel, Adelaide Fringe and Stage Raw LA awards. This edition was published to coincide with the original production which was first produced by Fishamble: The New Play Company in November 2018.

It's mad that ye're here with me. In Cobh. I always felt like I was born on the brink of the world. That I was near death, always. And here I am! Hereafter. This place of slower motion. But whipping energy. Back Home. A woman lies dead in her grave in the Tumbledown cemetery, Cobh, County Cork. It's a recent relocation; only two weeks before she was living in a flat near Croke Park in Dublin, beneath two East European prostitutes who she had begun to be friendly with. From her last resting place, she tells the story of her life: her happy childhood and the mother who loved Cleopatra; being struck by lightning and then missing school for a year; her night shifts in hotels washing and mending laundry; up to her ultimate and untimely demise in a north Dublin flat; all via a series of unlikely encounters and heartbreaking betrayals. Written in Pat Kinevane's signature style, Underneath is a blackly comic, rich and vivid tale of a life lived in secret, a testament to the people who live on the fringes, under the nose of everyday life. Underneath was published to coincide with the play's first production by Fishamble theatre company in December 2014.