15 September - 1 November 2025

A World Premiere Abbey Theatre production

The Boy: A Two-Play Theatrical Event

Written by Marina Carr

Directed by Caitríona McLaughlin

Booking Information


Dates: 15 September – 1 November 2025

On the Abbey Stage 

Previews: 15 – 30 Sept

Single play
Days:
Mon, Tues, Thurs, Fri – 7pm
Time: 7pm
Tickets: €15 – €55

Two plays
Days:
Wed, Sat
Time: 2pm
Tickets: €30 – €95
Schedule:
Play one: 2pm – 4.25pm (including interval)
Break: 4.25pm – 7pm
Play two: 7pm – 9.25pm (including interval)

Age recommendation: 16+ 

Content Advice: For information on the content and themes in this production, click here.

Two play performances: you can pre-order inter-show refreshments here.

Touch Tour of Stage and Set: 18/10/25, 12:00pm

Audio-described and captioned performance: 18/10/25, 2:00pm

Sign language interpreted performance: 22/10/25, 2:00pm

★★★★ The Irish Times | ★★★★ The Guardian l ★★★★ The Stage | 'Sensational' Irish Independent

Fate. Power. Betrayal. Family.

Written by Marina Carr and directed by Caitríona McLaughlin, The Boy: A Two-Play Theatrical Event explores the timeless themes of power, legacy, family, and love. Do any of us really control our fate?

This ★★★★ world premiere event has been hailed as “tremendous” (The Irish Times) and “sensational” (Irish Independent), now playing on the Abbey Stage until 1st November. 

The Boy: A Two-play Theatrical Event features two new plays that can be enjoyed separately or experienced back-to-back for the full, epic story on Ireland’s national stage. 

Play One, The Boy, introduces a family at the height of its power before things begin to unravel under the pressure of untold truths. 

Play Two, The God and His Daughter, explores the consequences that continue into the next generation. 

Inspired by Sophocles’ Theban Trilogy, this exciting theatrical event continues Carr’s vivid conversation with the foundations of modern drama.

Playing as part of Dublin Theatre Festival 2025. 

Reviews

★★★★★
'Powerful''
The Irish Mail on Sunday

★★★★
'Tremendous... Eileen Walsh delivers a magnificent Jocasta'
The Irish Times

★★★★
'Majestic... a fresh interrogation of power and prophecy... riveting'
The Guardian

★★★★
'Atmospheric and compelling... a story of fate and transgression'
The Stage


'Sensational... startlingly good'
Irish Independent


'Fittingly epic performances'
Irish Examiner


'Palatial and cinematic set design'
Sunday Independent

Experience This Story Before 1 November 

The Boy 

The God and His Daughter 

Images: Ros Kavanagh

Marina Carr (Playwright) and Caitríona McLaughlin (Director) Interview 

Frank Blake (Oedipus) and Eileen Walsh (Jocasta) Interview 

Marina Carr reads from The Boy 

Introducing the Cast 

First Day of Rehearsals 

 

Marina Carr 

Marina Carr’s plays to date are Ullalloo, 1989; Low in the Dark, 1991; The Mai, 1994; Portia Coughlan, 1996; By the Bog of Cats, 1998; On Raftery’s Hill, 1999; Ariel, 2000; Woman and Scarecrow, 2004; The Cordelia Dream, 2006; Marble, 2007; 16 Possible Glimpses, 2009; Hecuba, 2015; iGirl, 2021; Girl on an Altar, 2022-3; Audrey or Sorrow, 2024; and The Map of Argentina, 2024. Adaptations are Anna Karenina (from Tolstoy’s novel), 2016; Blood Wedding (a new version of Lorca’s play), 2019; and Virginia Woolf’s To the Lighthouse, 2021. Plays for children are Meat and Salt, 2003 and The Giant Blue Hand, 2007.

Her work has been produced by the Abbey Theatre, the Gate, Druid, Landmark, the Royal Court, Wyndham’s Theatre, the RSC, the Almeida, the Kiln, the MacCarter Theatre, San Diego Rep, and Milwaukee rep. She is translated into many languages and produced around the world.

She also wrote a new, contemporary translation of Rigoletto for Opera Theatre Company, which toured Ireland in 2015, and wrote an original oratorio Mary Gordon as part of a commission for Wicklow County Council that brought together choirs from throughout County Wicklow with solo singers and the RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra in November 2016.

Prizes include Windham-Campbell Prize 2017 for her body of work, the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize, the American/Ireland Fund Award, the E.M Forster Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the Macaulay Fellowship, and the Puterbaugh Fellowship. She is a member of Aosdána.   

Carr has taught at Trinity College Dublin, at Villanova, and at Princeton; and currently she is an Associate Professor at Dublin City University. Carr is published by The Gallery Press, Nick Hern Books and Faber & Faber.    

Credits

  • Godwoman: Jolly Abraham
  • Chrysippus: Noah Behan
  • Oedipus: Frank Blake
  • Queen of the Furies: Jane Brennan
  • Moon: Amy Conroy
  • Chrysippus: Harley Cullen Walsh
  • Woman: Zara Devlin
  • Haimon: Eimhin Fitzgerald Doherty
  • The Shee: Olwen Fouéré
  • Farmer: Seán Fox
  • Oreone: Ronan Leahy
  • Creon: Seán Mahon
  • Laius: Frank McCusker
  • Antigone: Éilish McLaughlin
  • Theseus: Abdelaziz Sanusi
  • Sphinx: Catherine Walsh
  • Jocasta: Eileen Walsh


  • Playwright: Marina Carr
  • Director: Caitríona McLaughlin
  • Set Design: Cordelia Chisholm
  • Costume Design: Catherine Fay
  • Lighting Design: Jane Cox
  • Composition and Sound Design: Carl Kennedy
  • Video Design: Dick Straker
  • Movement Director and Choreographer: Stephen Moynihan
  • Voice Director: Andrea Ainsworth
  • Hair and Make Up: Leonard Daly
  • Assistant Director: Éadaoin Fox
  • Assistant Lighting Design: Jess Fitzsimons Kane
  • Assistant Sound Design: Ultan de Stainléigh
  • Associate Video Design: Jachym Bouzek
  • Fight Director: Alan Walsh
  • Singing Coach: Danny Forde
  • Casting Director: Barry Coyle
  • Publicity Image: Sarah Doyle
  • Graphic Design: AAD
  • Illustration of Marina Carr: Louise Boughton
Call Box Office Open in Maps
Abbey Theatre
26/27 Lower Abbey Street
Dublin 1
Ireland
D01 K0F1