We’re inviting you to join us in the Abbey Bar to do your day’s writing work here, in community with other theatre artists. Pen to paper. Fingers to keyboard. However you like to get it done.

We have a different guest playwright with us every month as a host. They are trying to write something too. They’ll take some time out for a Q&A before lunch to share reflections about their writing process, answer your questions, and talk about how they like to get it done.

This isn’t a workshop – it’s a quiet, co-working gathering that ring-fences time for you to write. There aren’t any craft exercises or sharing of work. It’s an opportunity for inspiration, solidarity and for getting your idea down on paper. It’s free and open to playwrights and performance makers of any experience level. You can be writing a play, a blurb, a funding application or a secret something you aren’t ready to talk about yet.

What to expect 

10am – 10:30am: Pick your seat, have a coffee, get comfortable and chat to your fellow writers

10:30am – 12.30pm: Quiet writing time

12:30pm – 1:30pm Q & A with our guest playwright about their writing process

1:30pm – 2:30pm: Lunch break

2:30pm – 4.00pm: Quiet writing time

Please note: This event takes place in the Abbey Bar. We have tables, chairs, high stools and benches. You’ll need to bring your laptop, and we recommend you bring it charged as plugs are limited. We’re a busy working theatre so the work space won’t be silent – this will work best for you if you like a bit of background noise while you write. The Abbey Bar is only accessible via stairs. Tickets are limited to one per person.

2025 Dates 

• 11th August – registration now open
• 15th September
• 13th October
• 10th November
• 8th December

August guest playwright: Eugene O’Brien 

Eugene wrote the play EDEN which debuted on the Peacock Stage in 2001 and transferred to the Abbey Stage later that year and then onto the Arts Theatre in London’s West end in 2002. It has been translated into Romanian, Italian, Catalan, Dutch and German. EDEN received the Irish Times Theatre Award, the Stewart Parker Award and the Rooney Prize for Literature. HEAVEN, produced by Fishamble debuted at the Dublin Theatre Festival in 2022, and completed a very successful run in the E59E Theatre New York.  Heaven was named best new play at the Irish Times Theatre Awards and won a Fringe First at the 2023 Edinburgh Fringe Festival and played the Southwark Playhouse in London and a sold out Irish tour in the spring of 2025. Other Theatre work includes SAVOY produced on the Peacock stage and THE GOOD HOUSE OF HAPPINESS, ELIZA’S ADVENTURES IN THE UNCANNY VALLEY, MESPIL IN THE DARK, all in collaboration with PAN PAN theatre company.

Film and TV work includes the award-winning PURE MULE and three feature films EDEN, THE FLAG and TARRAC. Other work includes the THE NEST, SLOTH and NUMB all for RTÉ radio drama and an adaptation of Roddy Doyle’s BARRYTOWN trilogy for BBC radio drama. Eugene’s novel GOING BACK was published by Gill in 2022 and a new feature film ONE SWEET HOUR is being shot this September.