The Mommo Plays ― Brigit / Bailegangaire / a Thief of a Christmas

Brigit

I'd like it to be perfect . . . Beautiful . . . The statue . . . Unbeatable? . . . I'd like it to be what I feel . . . And I don't know what that is.

Set in the 1950s, Brigit, a prequel to Murphy's critically-acclaimed Bailegangaire (1985), tells the story of Mommo and Seamus, grandparents living on the breadline, who are raising three grandchildren: Mary, Dolly and Tom, when Seamus is offered a job to carve a statue of St Brigit.

Brigit premiered in September 2014, in a production by Druid Theatre Company, Galway, Ireland.

Bailegangaire

'One of the finest and most inventive pieces of Irish dramatic writing ever - the power of its language soaring beyond the loftiest aspirations of Synge and its insights on the human spirit cutting deeper than O'Casey's' - Sunday Independent

A Thief of a Christmas

'Grand opera . . . both timeless and contemporary' - Fintan O'Toole

Tom Murphy is considered by many to be Ireland's greatest playwright. He has written over twenty-five plays and has received numerous awards and nominations including the Ulysses medal, awarded by University College Dublin (2013). Throughout his career, he has worked closely with the Abbey Theatre in Dublin and with Druid Theatre in Galway. This is the eighth collection of his work published by Methuen Drama.