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 

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

July guest playwright: Ciara Elizabeth Smyth 

Ciara Elizabeth Smyth is an award-winning playwright and screenwriter from Dublin

whose work has won praise for its dark humour and experimental approach to form. Her plays have been presented by the Abbey Theatre Dublin, the Lyric Theatre Belfast and the Traverse Theatre Edinburgh, the Royal Court London and The Irish Repertory Theater New York.

Her 2023 LIE LOW (Winner Best Theatre Script at the Zebbies 2023; First Finalist BBC Writersroom Popcorn Award; Nominee Irish Times Best New Play) has been translated into Italian, Turkish and Chinese, and is currently being adapted into an opera directed by award-winning director Tom Creed.

In April 2025 her most recent play, IRI$HTOWN, starring Saoirse-Monica Jackson and Kate Burton, completed a sold-out off-Broadway run at Irish Rep in New York, earning multiple nominations and awards at the Origin 1st Irish Festival.

Ciara’s debut short film, SLAY + PREPARE, premiered at the Glasgow Short Film Festival 2024 and she is currently writing her debut feature film, THE CENTRE, which is supported by Short Circuit.

Currently, Ciara is Playwright in Residence in Dun Laoghaire-Rathdown 2025 and winner of Playwrights ’73 Bursary Scheme 2025-26, on attachment to Traverse Theatre. Ciara is under commission with several television production companies and theatre companies across the UK and Ireland and is represented by Curtis Brown.