Tom Murphy shot to fame with the London production of A Whistle in the Dark in 1961, establishing him as the outstanding Irish playwright of his generation. The international success of DruidMurphy, the 2012-13 staging of three of his major plays by the Druid Theatre Company, served to underline his continuing appeal and importance. This is the first full scale academic study devoted to his theatre, providing an overview of all his work, with a detailed reading of his most significant texts.
His powerful and searchingly honest engagement with Irish history and society is reflected in the violent Whistle in the Dark, the epic Famine (1968), the often hilarious Conversations on a Homecoming (1985) and the darkly Chekhovian The House (2000). Folklore and myth figure more prominently in the spiritual drama of The Sanctuary Lamp (1975), the Faustian Gigli Concert (1983) and the women's stories of Bailegangaire (1985). The range and reach of Murphy's theatre is demonstrated in this informed reading, supported by key interviews with the playwright himself and his most important theatrical and critical interpreters.

Nicholas Grene is Professor of English Literature at Trinity College Dublin and a Member of the Royal Irish Academy. He has published widely on Shakespeare and on Irish literature: his books include The Politics of Irish Drama (1999), Shakespeare's Serial History Plays (2002), Yeats's Poetic Codes ( 2008), Synge and Edwardian Ireland ( 2011), co-edited with Brian Cliff. He has written extensively on Murphy, including editing the volume of essays Talking about Tom Murphy (2001) and writing the Introduction to Tom Murphy, Plays: 5 (Bloomsbury Methuen Drama, 2006).