This is Paradise

Description

Northern Ireland, 1998. The Good Friday Agreement has just been signed, politicians are shaking hands and declaring peace in our time, when Kate receives an urgent phone call. As she travels to the coastal town of Portbenoney to confront an old lover, dark memories of their time together rise in her like a river. This is Paradise by Michael John O'Neill speaks in a fierce and powerful voice. With brutal lyricism, it examines the legacy of violence and asks how we can begin to mend in its wake. The play opened at the Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh, in July 2022.

Michael John O'Neill is a playwright, dramaturg and theatre producer from the north coast of Ireland. In 2019 Michael became the inaugural recipient of the Bruntwood Prize's Original New Voice Award for his play Akedah. In 2020 his digital short Sore Afraid was produced by National Theatre of Scotland, Citizens Theatre, and BBC Scotland, and his audio short Part of that World was produced by Pitlochry Festival Theatre. In 2021 his play This is Paradise was commissioned by the Traverse Theatre and won the Popcorn Writing Award. He is developing new plays with the Almeida Theatre (as part of the Genesis New Writers' Programme), Lyric Theatre Belfast & Rage Productions Mumbai, Hampstead Theatre (as Writer on Attachment), National Theatre of Scotland (as Writer on Attachment), and Playwrights' Studio, Scotland (as a New Playwrights' Award winner). His work as a theatre producer includes as Artistic Producer of the Tron Theatre (2014-2020), where he founded the Tron's new work department and commissioned and produced Isobel McArthur's Pride & Prejudice* (*Sort of).