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Plays 1: Half a Glass of Water / The End of Hope / Ulster American / Cyprus Avenue / Sadie
'Playwright David Ireland challenges people to draw lines between what they find funny and what they find outrageous' (Sydney Morning Herald)
This first collection of plays by David Ireland brings together three of his most successful hits that have enjoyed numerous productions around the world alongside two previously unpublished
Half a Glass of ' The dialogue is brutal and tender, horrific and humorous ... this is a tough, challenging work, undercut by Ireland's trademark black humour, which asks questions of what a successful post-conflict society looks like.' ( Independent )
The End of ' A freewheeling, majestically entertaining, all-too-brief hour that touches on everything from religion and identity to body dysmorphia' ( Times )
Cyprus ' The most shocking play on the London stage ... a blackly comic examination of sectarian hatred – and a subversive drama that has never been more relevant' ( Guardian )
Ulster ' What a brave, savage writer David Ireland is! There are moments in this play that are so shockingly provocative, so laugh-out-loud funny while simultaneously curl-into-a-ball-and cringe-worrying that I found my mouth was actually open. He can't go there, I thought. And then he did.' ( WhatsOnStage )
' A fascinating account of one woman, her troubles and the Troubles .' ( Irish News )
David Ireland was Playwright-in-Residence at the Lyric Theatre Belfast 2011-12. He won the Stewart Parker Award and the Meyer-Whitworth Award in 2012 and was shortlisted for the Evening Standard Award for Most Promising Playwright 2016. He won the James Tait Black Prize Award for Cyprus Avenue .
This first collection of plays by David Ireland brings together three of his most successful hits that have enjoyed numerous productions around the world alongside two previously unpublished
Half a Glass of ' The dialogue is brutal and tender, horrific and humorous ... this is a tough, challenging work, undercut by Ireland's trademark black humour, which asks questions of what a successful post-conflict society looks like.' ( Independent )
The End of ' A freewheeling, majestically entertaining, all-too-brief hour that touches on everything from religion and identity to body dysmorphia' ( Times )
Cyprus ' The most shocking play on the London stage ... a blackly comic examination of sectarian hatred – and a subversive drama that has never been more relevant' ( Guardian )
Ulster ' What a brave, savage writer David Ireland is! There are moments in this play that are so shockingly provocative, so laugh-out-loud funny while simultaneously curl-into-a-ball-and cringe-worrying that I found my mouth was actually open. He can't go there, I thought. And then he did.' ( WhatsOnStage )
' A fascinating account of one woman, her troubles and the Troubles .' ( Irish News )
David Ireland was Playwright-in-Residence at the Lyric Theatre Belfast 2011-12. He won the Stewart Parker Award and the Meyer-Whitworth Award in 2012 and was shortlisted for the Evening Standard Award for Most Promising Playwright 2016. He won the James Tait Black Prize Award for Cyprus Avenue .
320 pages, Paperback
Published November 17, 2022
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
December 28, 2024
I had already read the three full-length plays in this anthology, but reread two of them (Ulster American I'd already reread not long ago when it was revived in London in a production starring Woody Harrelson!), along with a first read-through of the two one-acts that start the volume.
Both of these are really weird and wonderfully, darkly funny - especially 'The End of Hope', which concerns the aftermath of a one-night stand between a self-aggrandizing Irish poet and a woman who spends the first half of the play in a mouse cosplay costume! There were several times I actually doubled over with laughter - if I were still directing, that would be something on my bucket-list to tackle!
The two other full-length plays were OK, but more 3 stars than the 5 I'd give the other three - which rounds out to a 4, I guess. Ireland has been favorably compared to Martin McDonagh and he does sometimes reach comparable heights of bloody lunacy.
Both of these are really weird and wonderfully, darkly funny - especially 'The End of Hope', which concerns the aftermath of a one-night stand between a self-aggrandizing Irish poet and a woman who spends the first half of the play in a mouse cosplay costume! There were several times I actually doubled over with laughter - if I were still directing, that would be something on my bucket-list to tackle!
The two other full-length plays were OK, but more 3 stars than the 5 I'd give the other three - which rounds out to a 4, I guess. Ireland has been favorably compared to Martin McDonagh and he does sometimes reach comparable heights of bloody lunacy.
October 19, 2025
Half A Glass of Water: This play makes pretty clear why some people have compared David Ireland to Martin McDonagh, since this play has clear affinities with the In-Yer-Face school of drama. The play consists of a conversation between two men, which explores cycles of abuse, violence, and the psychological damage that come with them. The younger of the two men, Whitney, has a long history of abuse at the hands of his parents--who physically abused him, sexually abused him, and forced him to sexually service an old man--and Eli, the older of the two, who raped him in prison. Eli explains that while he was raping Whitney, he was picturing a girl who had humiliated him on the playground as a child. And Whitney talks about his fantasies of brutally raping and mutilating a woman at the gym whom he wants a relationship with. For both men, their own suffering has stunted their ability to have normal, healthy, or even non-violent relationships with other people, and it's not clear to what extent their entirely aware of how damaged they are.
https://youtu.be/iE9no1-9Nyw
The End of Hope: Quite a strange play, dealing with the difficulties of getting to know someone in a world where we're all hiding constantly behind masks--even when it seems we've taken them off. Janet and Dermot have just slept together, and it's not clear whether he's going to leave or spend the night. They clash repeatedly over which TV channels are decent, over whether Tony Blair is evil or good, over lies they tell one another, over religion (she's an East Belfast Protestant, he was raised Catholic but is now an atheist). And each time they lie or pretend to be someone other than they are, there's a corresponding gesture of removing the mask. This is made literal when Dermot convinces Janet to remove the mouse mask she's worn the entire time they had sex. But even when she removes the mask, and even as they talk about themselves, it's not clear they ever get closer to truly knowing one another--yet there is an undeniable bond and attraction between the two of them, even as they fight, critique, insult, and reject one another.
https://youtu.be/9ExZh4hSBS0
Ulster American: At this point in his career, I believe this is Ireland's most well-known play, and I can definitely see why. It's witty and insightful, but also has that brutal edge of In-Yer-Face theatre, while working through contemporary British problems. The play is about a meeting between a director, actor, and playwright. The male director (Leigh Carver) and actor (Jay Conway) are insufferable liberal fucks--the kind of people who confuse talking about giving women space to express themselves freely with actually doing so, and who expect that when women do express themselves it will be in ways that validate these liberal men. This does become a problem when Ruth Conway, the author of the play shows up. She challenges them both because they want to rewrite her script, changing it in massive fundamental ways when they find out it's not what they thought it was and that she's not what they thought she was. Leigh, who is English, insists that Ruth is Irish. But as a Belfast-born Protestant and unionist, insists on her British identity. Leigh treats this identity condescendingly, acknowledging that she "thinks" she's British, but "real" British people don't accept Northern Irish unionists as British, and therefore they aren't. And Jay, an Irish American, thought he was signing on for a play by an Irish Catholic about a character fighting the British--even though the term "Fenian" is well known among Irish Americans, so it seems completely careless on his part to have just assumed it was an anti-British term.
https://youtu.be/yZX_nqa3G7Y
Cyprus Avenue: This is a disturbing, but really interesting play about an East Belfast unionist protestant who has a psychotic break after becoming convinced that his new-born granddaughter is somehow the famous Northern Irish republican leader Gerry Adams. The increasing conviction that this baby girl is his sworn enemy pushes Eric further and further from reality, leading him to question his family and his own identity's foundations as a protestant unionist. This is a departure from something like Ulster American, where Ruth uncompromisingly asserts her British identity and never comes close to questioning it. And, while the doubts about the absolute distinction between British and Irish identity are presented by a madman, his daughter also gives voice to the idea that Northern Ireland needs to move on from the sectarian and political differences of the Troubles, even expressing openness to reunification with the Republic of Ireland. In this sense, Cyprus Avenue goes further in challenging very regimented and hardened unionist identities--particularly as those identities are aligned with a dangerous psychopath who murders his daughter, wife, and granddaughter, thereby symbolically killing the future through he pathological hatred of Gerry Adams and the unionism he stands for.
https://youtu.be/yH4vFk56Bt0
Sadie: I feel like this play suckered me in, but in one of the best possible ways. Initially, the play felt relatively unfocused, touching on a bunch of different things--relationships, loneliness, the politics of Northern Ireland and the Troubles, sectarianism, memory, therapy, Covid-19 and masking. But in the final moments, it actually crystalized beautifully. The protagonist, Sadie, goes to therapy reluctantly, more or less as a favor to her much younger boyfriend, and in the course of that therapy, she explores the various forces in her life that have led her to become who she is. In particular, the refusal to see herself as a victim, and the preference for seeing the abusive relationship with her uncle as her fault, rather than seeing herself as a victim.
https://youtu.be/sypdk0TUB0A
https://youtu.be/iE9no1-9Nyw
The End of Hope: Quite a strange play, dealing with the difficulties of getting to know someone in a world where we're all hiding constantly behind masks--even when it seems we've taken them off. Janet and Dermot have just slept together, and it's not clear whether he's going to leave or spend the night. They clash repeatedly over which TV channels are decent, over whether Tony Blair is evil or good, over lies they tell one another, over religion (she's an East Belfast Protestant, he was raised Catholic but is now an atheist). And each time they lie or pretend to be someone other than they are, there's a corresponding gesture of removing the mask. This is made literal when Dermot convinces Janet to remove the mouse mask she's worn the entire time they had sex. But even when she removes the mask, and even as they talk about themselves, it's not clear they ever get closer to truly knowing one another--yet there is an undeniable bond and attraction between the two of them, even as they fight, critique, insult, and reject one another.
https://youtu.be/9ExZh4hSBS0
Ulster American: At this point in his career, I believe this is Ireland's most well-known play, and I can definitely see why. It's witty and insightful, but also has that brutal edge of In-Yer-Face theatre, while working through contemporary British problems. The play is about a meeting between a director, actor, and playwright. The male director (Leigh Carver) and actor (Jay Conway) are insufferable liberal fucks--the kind of people who confuse talking about giving women space to express themselves freely with actually doing so, and who expect that when women do express themselves it will be in ways that validate these liberal men. This does become a problem when Ruth Conway, the author of the play shows up. She challenges them both because they want to rewrite her script, changing it in massive fundamental ways when they find out it's not what they thought it was and that she's not what they thought she was. Leigh, who is English, insists that Ruth is Irish. But as a Belfast-born Protestant and unionist, insists on her British identity. Leigh treats this identity condescendingly, acknowledging that she "thinks" she's British, but "real" British people don't accept Northern Irish unionists as British, and therefore they aren't. And Jay, an Irish American, thought he was signing on for a play by an Irish Catholic about a character fighting the British--even though the term "Fenian" is well known among Irish Americans, so it seems completely careless on his part to have just assumed it was an anti-British term.
https://youtu.be/yZX_nqa3G7Y
Cyprus Avenue: This is a disturbing, but really interesting play about an East Belfast unionist protestant who has a psychotic break after becoming convinced that his new-born granddaughter is somehow the famous Northern Irish republican leader Gerry Adams. The increasing conviction that this baby girl is his sworn enemy pushes Eric further and further from reality, leading him to question his family and his own identity's foundations as a protestant unionist. This is a departure from something like Ulster American, where Ruth uncompromisingly asserts her British identity and never comes close to questioning it. And, while the doubts about the absolute distinction between British and Irish identity are presented by a madman, his daughter also gives voice to the idea that Northern Ireland needs to move on from the sectarian and political differences of the Troubles, even expressing openness to reunification with the Republic of Ireland. In this sense, Cyprus Avenue goes further in challenging very regimented and hardened unionist identities--particularly as those identities are aligned with a dangerous psychopath who murders his daughter, wife, and granddaughter, thereby symbolically killing the future through he pathological hatred of Gerry Adams and the unionism he stands for.
https://youtu.be/yH4vFk56Bt0
Sadie: I feel like this play suckered me in, but in one of the best possible ways. Initially, the play felt relatively unfocused, touching on a bunch of different things--relationships, loneliness, the politics of Northern Ireland and the Troubles, sectarianism, memory, therapy, Covid-19 and masking. But in the final moments, it actually crystalized beautifully. The protagonist, Sadie, goes to therapy reluctantly, more or less as a favor to her much younger boyfriend, and in the course of that therapy, she explores the various forces in her life that have led her to become who she is. In particular, the refusal to see herself as a victim, and the preference for seeing the abusive relationship with her uncle as her fault, rather than seeing herself as a victim.
https://youtu.be/sypdk0TUB0A
September 12, 2023
Vi la obra de Cyprus Avenue y me flipó tanto que me autoconvencí de que tenía que investigar más sobre David Ireland. Sin embargo, tras haber leído el compendio de obras de esta edición, creo que la imagen mental que me había hecho del autor se me ha venido abajo. Leí "Cyprus Avenue" como una sátira oscura y una crítica a la violencia y el sectarismo heredados de los Troubles en Irlanda del Norte... pero habiendo pasado por "Half a glass of water", "The end of Hope", "Ulster American" y "Sadie" y la introducción del propio autor, no puedo más que replantearme cuáles eran siquiera sus intenciones a la hora de presentar "Cyprus Avenue".
Me queda claro que se trata de un autor que quiere impactar. Su fuerte está en la comedia negra y en diálogos que simplemente expuestos en formato guión te dejan con la cara desencajada y un mal cuerpo tremendo al no contar con interpretaciones como la de Stephen Rea aportando matices a las escenas. Leído, David Ireland presenta una obra perturbadora, cargada de violencia, buenas dosis de homofobia, misoginia y racismo y una obsesión marcada por el añadido de escenas abuso y violación incluso a modo de propuesta hipotética. Creo que sólo "Cyprus Avenue" carece de escena de violación.
Entre la selección de temas, las ganas de escandalizar, la falta de sutileza en el formato de guion teatral, las anotaciones introductorias y algunas entrevistas, me apena darme cuenta de que el autor parece más un agitador de Twitter quejándose de su falta de libertad de expresión que de un nuevo Martin McDonagh.
Una decepción. Si me quedo con algo es con la interpretación de Rea en "Cyprus Avenue" y con "Ulster American" que dentro del horror, me pareció algo más sutil y cómico en su propuesta. El resto de obras y los comentarios del autor sobre ellas sólo me hacían avanzar en estado de incredulidad preguntándome por qué.
Me queda claro que se trata de un autor que quiere impactar. Su fuerte está en la comedia negra y en diálogos que simplemente expuestos en formato guión te dejan con la cara desencajada y un mal cuerpo tremendo al no contar con interpretaciones como la de Stephen Rea aportando matices a las escenas. Leído, David Ireland presenta una obra perturbadora, cargada de violencia, buenas dosis de homofobia, misoginia y racismo y una obsesión marcada por el añadido de escenas abuso y violación incluso a modo de propuesta hipotética. Creo que sólo "Cyprus Avenue" carece de escena de violación.
Entre la selección de temas, las ganas de escandalizar, la falta de sutileza en el formato de guion teatral, las anotaciones introductorias y algunas entrevistas, me apena darme cuenta de que el autor parece más un agitador de Twitter quejándose de su falta de libertad de expresión que de un nuevo Martin McDonagh.
Una decepción. Si me quedo con algo es con la interpretación de Rea en "Cyprus Avenue" y con "Ulster American" que dentro del horror, me pareció algo más sutil y cómico en su propuesta. El resto de obras y los comentarios del autor sobre ellas sólo me hacían avanzar en estado de incredulidad preguntándome por qué.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews