Play Plot Summaries

Night Mother by Marsha Norma

Night, Mother, written in 1981, was Marsha Norman's fifth play. The work received generally favorable reviews when it was first produced on stage in 1983. Among the numerous honors bestowed upon the play, it was awarded the 1983 Pulitzer Prize for drama. In brief, Night, Mother is a one-act play with two characters on stage: Jessie Cates, late thirties to early forties, who lives with her mother, Thelma. The play opens with Jessie asking her mother where a particular gun is kept. She finds it with Thelma’s help. As she cleans the gun, she quietly announces she’s going to kill herself at the end of the evening. Jessie’s announcement sets off a fierce struggle between mother and daughter, with Thelma using every strategy she can conceive of to talk Jessie out of her plan. Thelma becomes so desperate, she even resorts to telling Jessie the truth about a number of issues that have affected her life. This play illustrates one possible central facet about the nature of what creates drama in a story: the anticipation of the outcome of a dramatic situation. In this case, that means that Thelma, and the audience, learn early on of Jessie’s plans. And because they do, both Thelma and the audience are thrust deep into the heart of the story’s central question: Will Jessie really kill herself, or can Thelma find a way to stop her?

The Lonesome West by Martin McDonagh

The Lonesome West features the constantly arguing brothers Coleman and Valene, whose father has just died in a shotgun 'accident.' Valene is only interested in his religious ornaments, and drinking poteen. Coleman is only interested in eating, and attends funerals to collect free sausage rolls etc. Valene goes out to help drag the body of Garda Thomas Hanlon out of the lake with Father Welsh. Hanlon had just killed himself. Coleman pretends to follow, delaying to tie his shoelace, despite the fact that he was wearing loafers. While alone in the house, he destroys all of Valene's plastic figurines, by placing them in Valene's new stove. Only Father Welsh, the alcoholic parish priest, attempts to fix their relationship, but his advice mostly goes unheard. It is revealed later in the play that Coleman had shot his father because he insulted his (Coleman's) new haircut. Neither of the brothers show any grief or remorse at their father's death. The two brothers fight over everything and anything. Father Welsh, depressed because of the hatred between the brothers, and with a low self esteem, writes a letter begging the brothers to get along, saying that he will stake his soul on it. Father Welsh then goes on to drown himself in the lake. This act is significant, as there has already been a lengthy discussion about suicide in the play. The characters believe that damnation follows suicide for the victims. When Coleman and Valene read his letter, they attempt to reconcile themselvesEventually it becomes clear that the two brothers can never have a good relationship. They agree that fighting is actually good for them, and that Fr. Welsh's soul will be fine.

The Crucible by Arthur Miller

Using the historical subject of the Salem Witch trialsArthur Millers play The Crucible (1953) presents an allegory for events in contemporary America. The Salem Witch Trials took place in Salem, Massachusetts in 1692, and were based on the accusations of a twelve-year-old girl named Anne Putnam. Putnam claimed that she had witnessed a number of Salem's residents holding black sabbaths and consorting with Satan. Based on these accusations, an English-American clergyman named Samuel Parris spearheaded the prosecution of dozens of alleged witches in the Massachusetts colony. Nineteen people were hanged and one pressed to death over the following two years.

Miller's play employs these historical events to criticize the moments in humankind's history when reason and fact became clouded by irrational fears and the desire to place the blame for society's problems on others. Dealing with elements such as false accusations, manifestations of mass hysteria, and rumor-mongering, The Crucible is seen by many as more of a commentary on "McCarthyism'' than the actual Salem trials. "McCarthyism" was the name given to a movement led by Senator Joe McCarthy and his House Committee on Un-American Activities. This movement involved the hunting down and exposing of people suspected of having communist sympathies or connections. While those found guilty in McCarthy's witch hunt were not executed, many suffered irreparable damage to their reputations. Miller himself came under suspicion during this time

The Weir by Conor McPherson

The play opens in a rural Irish pub with Brendan, the publican and Jack, a car mechanic and garage owner. These two begin to discuss their respective days and are soon joined by Jim. The three then discuss Valerie, a pretty young woman from Dublin who has just rented an old house in the area.

Finbar, a businessman, arrives with Valerie, and the play revolves around reminiscence and the kind of banter which only comes about amongst men who have a shared upbringing. After a few drinks, the group begin telling stories with a supernatural slant, related to their own experience or those of others in the area, and which arise out of the popular preoccupations of Irish folklore: ghosts, fairies and mysterious happenings.

Though the imputation from each is that their tale is 'true', there is enough latitude in the storytelling, and sufficient reference to the conventions of a supernatural tales, for the audience to draw their own conclusions as to whether drinkers' yarns are being spun.

After each man (with the exception of Brendan) has told a story, Valerie tells her own: the reason why she has left Dublin. Valerie's story is melancholy and undoubtedly true, with a ghostly twist which outdoes the earlier tales, and the men become softer, kinder, and more real.

Finbar and Jim leave, and in the last part of the play, Jack's final monologue is a story of personal loss .

The play is is as much about lack of close relationships and missed connections as it is about anything else.

Dancing at Lughnasa by Brian Friel

The story is set in a small village called Ballybeg in Donegal Ireland in the year 1936. The Mundy family are at the centre of this story. Kate is the oldest and the only one who is working outside the home. She is a schoolteacher and feels the responsibility of looking after her four sisters. Their brother Jack has just returned from the missions in Uganda after 25years. He is sick with malaria but it seems that he has lost his religion and has engaged in pagan rites in Africa . This brings a sense of shame to the family as they are living within a small Irish community in the early 20th century. Furthermore Chris one of the sisters has a young son called Michael. Michael’s father is called Gerry Evans. He is irresponsible as a father and it seems has abandoned Chris on many occasions. Chris is still in love with him but knows that he will not assume the responsibilities associated with marriage.

As events unfold in the novel Kate loses her job because of the situation of Jack. Rose another sister and Agnes both spends their time knitting in order to make some money. With the advent of a new knitting factory to the village their work becomes redundant and they are left without any money. They both leave and disappear. Michael who is the narrator of the play announces how they were not found until 25 years later. At this stage Agnes is dead and Rose is dying in a hospice for the destitute in Southwark.  Jack dies of a heart attack within a year of his homecoming. Gerry disappears to Spain . Michael receives a letter from a young man of his own age also called Michael Evans who was the son of Gerry. Gerry had married and had lived with his wife and three children in Wales but had died of illness. The play concludes with Chris working in the knitting factory while Kate gets a job tutoring a young family.

Same Old Moon by Geraldine Aron

.Same Old Moon shows us scenes in the life of Brenda Barnes, the aspiring writer. We follow her from age nine to fortyish, and see through her eyes her eccentric and sometimes fiery Irish family - her wilful and self-destructive Dad, her put-upon, sometimes hot-tempered Mum and many others. A charming, but not uncritical, look at family life,

The Seafarer by Conor McPherson

The Seafarer was nwrtten in 2006.  It is set on Christmas Evein Baldoyle coastal suburb north of Dublin City. The play centers on James "Sharkey" Harkin, an alcoholic who has recently returned to live with his blind, aging brother, Richard Harkin. As Sharkey attempts to stay off the bottle during the holidays, he contends with the hard-drinking, irascible Richard and his own haunted conscience.

Having recently been let go from his job chauffeuring a wealthy developer and his wife in Lahinch, Co. Clare, Sharky returns to Dublin to look after Richard. Tension between the brothers is evident from the start and exists mostly in Richard's constant sniping and excessive demands from his younger brother. A source of early conflict stems from Richard’s inviting Nicky Giblin—Sharky’s love rival—to join the men, along with Ivan, for a game of poker.

Nicky Giblin unexpectedly arrives with the mysterious Mr. Lockhart, a man of refined appearance. During a tête-à-tête, Lockhart reminds Sharky of their prior meeting which occurred twenty-five years to the day previously, when the pair were remanded together in the Bridewell Garda Barracks when Sharky had been arrested over the killing of a vagrant, Lawrence Joyce. During the period of their captivity Sharky had agreed to a game of cards in which he wagered his soul in a game of poker against Lockhart in a bid to gain his freedom. Sharky won the game and with it his freedom, but with the proviso that Lockhart would at some future date, have an opportunity to play him once again.

The play culminates with the poker game played between the five men.It is in fact a game for Sharky’s soul as Lockhart reveals himself, in a series of private disclosures to Sharky.

Poor Beast in the Rain by Billy Roche

 The Setting is Wexford Town , the late 1970s. Wexford are in the all-Ireland hurling final and the anticipation is palpable at the local betting shop. Georgie and Joe, men who evidently spend a lot of time in the shop (albeit for very different reasons) chat with Eileen, the feisty daughter of owner Steven . Georgie is clearly besotted with Eileen. Joe, middle-aged, dispenses much advice to his younger cohort, most of it based on his own experiences as a wild youngster, when he and partner-in-crime Danger Doyle were the local hotshots.     Eileen, Joe, and Georgie all endure sarcastic barbs from cleaner Molly . Molly was once Doyle’s girlfriend, and has little time for the romantic picture still painted of his exploits. Ten years earlier, he left Wexford, taking the boat to England with Eileen’s mother and leaving friends, lovers, and a jilted husband behind. As excitement about the match reaches fever pitch, Danger Doyle comes home.

 

Portia Coughlan by Marina Carr

Marina Carr's play is a grim, depressing, almost unfathomable look at family life. Any moments of humour, however unintentional, cannot hide the pain that seems to build in layers.  On her 30th birthday Portia Coughlan is in no mood to celebrate.  It is exactly fifteen years since her twin brother Gabriel died in Belmont River.  Her husband Raphael, a successful business man gives her a braclet worth £ 5000.  He is a patient man by nature but his patience is being tested as portia continues to drink and is totally neglectful of their three children.  She spends nights away from home often in ht ecompany of two local men.  Portias Aunt and her husband offer some moments of relief while her only real friend Statia Doyle tries valiantly to lessen the deoressive mood.  Totally self-absorbed, Carr's heroine cannot move on and in time we hear of the exact relationship between her and the deceased Gabriel.  This in turn reveals more horror from the past involving Portia's parents, who despite their wealth, who despite their wealth were never really able to offer their daughter anything of value.

The Memory of Water by Shelagh Stephenson

Three sisters; Teresa, Mary and Catherine, come together before their mother's celebration that she is dead, each haunted by their own demons; in which the play focuses more on how each sister deals with the death and how it directly affects them. The three each have different memories of the same events, causing constant bickering about whose memories are true. As the three women get together after years of separation, all their hidden lies and self-betrayals are about to reach the surface.

The sisters' memories interact with each other, and show that despite synchronicites of time and place they cannot agree upon one unifying experience. This is echoed in Vi's final speech, which portrays Alzheimer's disease as being adrift among a series of islands of your own identity. The sisters drift around their own islands of memory, unable to agree on one particular point, and yet are unified by their familial bond.