April bright & Blinded by the light

These two utterly contrasting plays showcase different sides of the unique talent of one of Ireland's leading playwrights. In April Bright, a young couple's arrival in their new home is disturbed by a caller from the past, whose presence unleashes the joys and tragedies of previous lives buried within those walls. A stunning evocation of family life just after the War, April Bright is an extraordinary juxtaposition of two sets of ordinary lives divided by half a century, yet linked by universal longings and dreams. Blinded by the Light is an anarchic black farce. While the world goes crazy outside his bed-sit, Mick's sole ambition is to be left alone "to eat scuttery kebabs, read books in Latin and watch Open University programmes at five a.m. about frogs fucking and the homosexual tendencies of the ten-spined stickleback". When he opens his door to Mormon missionaries however, the entire world crash-lands upon him, including the dope-smoking, card-cheating severed head of an ancient Irish saint.