Tom Murphy (playwright)
| Tom Murphy | |
|---|---|
| Nationality | Irish |
| Information | |
| Period | Post-war era |
| Dramatic devices | Dostoyevskian and surreal takes on the usual auld Irish clichés |
| Notable work(s) |
A Whistle in the Dark, The Sanctuary Lamp, Famine, The Gigli Concert, Conversations on a Homecoming |
| Works with | Druid Theatre Company |
Tom Murphy (born 23 February 1935) is an Irish dramatist who has worked closely with the Abbey Theatre in Dublin and with Druid Theatre, Galway. Born in Tuam, County Galway, Ireland, he currently lives in Dublin.
Murphy's first successful play, A Whistle in the Dark was performed at the Theatre Royal Stratford East in London in 1961 and caused considerable controversy both there and in Dublin when it was later given its Irish premiere at the Abbey having initially been rejected by its artistic director.
Murphy was born in Tuam, County Galway, the youngest of 10 children. His elder siblings gradually emigrated to Birmingham until he was left alone with his mother. He attended the local Archbishop McHale College, and later became a metalwork teacher. He began writing in the late 1950s, saying, "In 1958, my best friend said to me, why don't we write a play? I didn't think it was an unusual question, because in 1958 everyone in Ireland was writing a play". His second play, A Whistle in the Dark, was written in his Tuam kitchen on Murphy's free Friday and Saturday nights. It was entered into a competition for amateur plays, which it won, and was eventually produced in London in 1961, having been rejected by the Abbey Theatre. While Murphy was religious as a boy, education by the Christian Brothers left him largely irreligious. His 1975 play The Sanctuary Lamp was produced in the Abbey Theatre and received a hostile reception due to its anti-Catholic nature, with theatre goers walking out and much negative criticism in the media. After this controversy Murphy worked as a farmer for some years. He now lives in south Dublin.
Considered by many to be Ireland's greatest living playwright (a title also often given to Brian Friel), Tom Murphy was honoured by the Abbey Theatre in 2001 by a retrospective season of six of his plays. His plays include the historical epic Famine (1968) which deals with the Irish Potato Famine between 1846 and spring 1847, the anti-clerical The Sanctuary Lamp (1975), The Gigli Concert (1983) and for many his masterpiece, the lyrical Bailegangaire and the bar-room comedy Conversations on a Homecoming (both 1985) .
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