The House

The House Synopsis

"The most compelling indictment of emigration ever committed to the stage" (Irish Times)

Summertime, and the emigrant workers, dressed in new suits and dreams, are returning home for the annual sojourn. They are young, vigorous, they have money in their pockets. But they do not belong here any more - and they do not belong abroad. They are resentful and dangerous. None more so than the seemingly gregarious Christy Cavanagh. His childhood fixation with Mrs de Burca and her daughters becomes a frightening obsession when he finds that the date has been set for the auctioning of their house, and his bid to possess heaven has tragic consequences.

"Murphy's great skill as a playwright is to fuse the epic with the domestic, to create a drama whose narrative and action aspire to the mythic and poetic with characters as intensely vivid as they are intimately realised" (Sunday Tribune)

The House premiered at the Abbey Theatre, Dublin in April 2000.