Plays
by Conor Mcpherson

This volume of Conor McPherson's collected plays, covering a decade of writing, celebrates a fascination with the uncanny which has led him to be described as 'quite possibly the finest playwright of his generation' ( New York Times ). In Shining City , a man seeks help from a counsellor, claiming to have seen the ghost of his dead wife.

The play, premiered at the Royal Court, London, is 'up there with The Weir, moving, compassionate, ingenious and absolutely gripping' ( Daily Telegraph ) The Seafarer , premiered at the National Theatre before going on to become a Tony Award-winning Broadway hit, tells the story of an extended Christmas Eve card game, but one played for the highest stakes possible.

'McPherson proves yet again he is both a born yarn-spinner and an acute analyst of the melancholy Irish manhood' ( Guardian ) Set in 'the big house' in 1820s rural Ireland, The Veil is McPherson's first period play.

Seventeen-year-old Hannah is to be married off in order to settle the debts of the crumbling estate.

But when Reverend Berkeley arrives, determined to orchestrate a séance, chaos is unleased.

'A cracking fireside tale of haunting and decay' ( The Times ) The Birds , hauntingly adapted from the short story by Daphne du Maurier, is 'deliciously chilling, claustrophobic, questioning, frightening; and with a twist' (Irish Independent).

It is published here for the first time, as is The Dance of Death , a new version of Strindberg's classic, which premiered at the Trafalgar Studios in London.

'A spectacularly bleak yet curiously bracing drama that often makes you laugh out loud' ( Daily Telegraph ) Completing the volume is a Foreword by the author.