Dublin by Lamplight

Book excerpt: Martyn Wallace awoke in his boarding house and held his aching head. His room was brown and dirty and bare. He called it Reading Gaol. Amidst the filth and fury of Dublin 1904, the theatrical event of the century is about to explode! Fading stars, rebels, whores and romantics irreverently expose the strange and lurid world of Dublin by Lamplight. An instant hit when it first opened in 2004, this hugely entertaining and anarchic production is a night to change a nation's destiny! Unless it all goes horribly wrong . . . Written by Michael West in collaboration with Corn Exchange theatre company, Dublin by Lamplight was first produced at the Project Arts Centre in Dublin in 2004, before a transfer to the Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh, in 2005. This new edition of the playscript was published to coincide with a major revival at the Abbey Theatre in spring 2017