Corn Mill Logo | Corn Mill Theatre

Conversations on a Homecoming

WRITTEN BY TOM MURPHY

Show-Conversations on a Homecoming | Corn Mill Theatre Group

12

January

About

Over a long drinking session in an East Galway pub a group of friends gather together after an absence of ten years. Faced with the changes the years have wrought, they begin a long process of self-discovery.

Setting

A pub in a town in East Galway in the early seventies.

Author

Tom Murphy was born in Tuam, Co. Galway, and he had a deep attachment to the place of his birth. At the age of 24, he wrote his first play, On the Outside, in collaboration with his great friend Noel O'Donoghue. The following year, he completed his first full-length play, which under the original title, The Iron Men, won a number of Irish national playwriting awards. In 1961 it was produced as A Whistle in the Dark at the Theatre Royal, Stratford East, London, one of the most momentous premieres in British Theatre in the 1960s. This production later transferred to the West End. His next plays were produced at the Abbey Theatre, Dublin, and included FamineA Crucial Week in the Life of a Grocer's Assistant and The Morning After Optimism. Two of his most controversial and highly regarded plays were to follow in the late 70s and early 80s, The Sanctuary Lamp and The Gigli Concert. In 1984, he formed an association with Druid Theatre Company that began with the productions of Famine and On the Outside. These were a prelude to the landmark Druid productions of the mid 80s, Conversations on a HomecomingBailegangaire and, in a co-production with the Abbey Theatre, A Whistle in the Dark. These productions were widely acclaimed both at home and internationally. Murphy's plays subsequently premiered at The Abbey Theatre, The Edinburgh International Festival and The Royal Court, London. His plays have been produced throughout the world including the UK, the US, Canada, Australia, Austria, Hungary and Portugal. He also directed his own work including celebrated productions of BailegangaireAlice Trilogy and The Sanctuary Lamp. In 2012, Druid Theatre Company presented a major celebration of Murphy's work, DruidMurphy, which consisted of Conversations on a HomecomingA Whistle in the Dark and Famine and toured across Ireland, to the USA and UK. Tom Murphy was a member of Aosdána and a patron of Irish Theatre Institute.