Shush

A group of longtime friends in Dublin get together for an impromptu birthday party.  Hilarity and mayhem ensue!  As each friend reveals the crises and major changes they are going through, the group dynamic veers from pulling together for support to breaking apart from the stress of each fresh revelation.  These women, ranging in age from 30s to 40s, 50s and 60s, offer a variety of perspectives on how to deal with everyday emotions and how to navigate the challenges that marriage, age, and relationships bring to their lives.

“Shush” will be performed at Goodwood’s Jubilee Cottage at 8pm Thursday, May 2, Friday, May 3, Saturday, May 4, Friday May 10, and at 2pm on Sunday, May 12. Most of the play takes place in the living room/kitchen of Brenda’s apartment, where the characters move about while chatting and drinking, which makes the space of the cottage perfect for the kind of intimacy that surrounds the characters.

Playwright Elaine Murphy is a fresh face on the Irish playwriting scene whose work has won widespread acclaim. Her debut play, Little Gem, premiered at the Dublin Fringe Festival in 2008, playing to packed audiences during its sellout run. It picked up the Fishamble New Writing Award and a nomination for Best New Play at the Irish Times Theatre Awards before transferring to Edinburgh’s Traverse Theatre, where it won the 2009 Carol Tambor Best of Edinburgh Award.  Murphy’s second play, Ribbons, was commissioned by the Abbey Theatre for The Fairer Sex, a series of short plays from leading female playwrights, followed by Shush, also an Abbey Theatre commission, which premiered on the mainstage in 2013 for a six-week run. She is currently developing a new TV drama series Fleecers, and her adaptation of Maeve Binchy’s Circle of Friends opened to great reviews at The Gaiety Theatre, Dublin in 2022.

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