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 – 4.30pm: 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 

• 14th July – registration will open in early July.
• 11th August
• 15th September
• 13th October
• 10th November
• 8th December

June guest playwright: Kevin Barry 

Kevin Barry’s stage credits include There Are Little Kingdoms (Meridian Theatre Company, Cork, 2008; Keegan Theater Company,  Washington DC, 2009; Decadent Theatre Company, Galway, 2021), Burn The Bad Lamp (Town Hall Theatre, Galway, 2010), Autumn Royal (Everyman Palace, Cork, 2017, 2018; Irish Repertory Theater, New York 2021) and Guests Of The Nation  (Corcadorca, Cork, 2022.) Autumn Royal was awarded the BBC Northern Ireland Drama Award in 2018. He has also written half a dozen radio plays for RTÉ and the BBC, including Maybe the Night and Toronto and the State of Grace, both of which were medal winners at the New York Festival Radio Awards. He wrote the film script for Dark Lies the Island, 2019 and has several other feature scripts in development. He has published four novels, including most recently The Heart in Winter, and three short story collections, most recently That Old Country Music. His literary awards include the International Dublin Literary Award, the European Union Prize for Literature, the Goldsmiths Prize, the Rooney Prize for Irish Literature, the Lannan Foundation Literary Award, the Sunday Times Short Story Prize, the O Henry Story Prize, the Edge Hill Short Story Prize and many more. His work has been translated into more than 30 languages and his short stories and essays regularly appear in the New Yorker, Harpers, Granta and elsewhere. He is the co-editor and publisher of Winter Papers, Ireland’s annual arts anthology. Originally from Limerick city, he now lives in County Sligo.