SOMEWHERE OUT THERE YOU and IRONBOUND Premiere at Abbey as Part of Dublin Theatre Festival

The Abbey Theatre has  announced details of two productions, programmed to coincide with the Dublin Theatre Festival. A romantic comedy with a twist, written by Nancy Harris and directed by Wayne Jordan, Somewhere Out There You makes its world premiere on the Abbey stage. It will be joined by Ironbound, a wry and stirring portrait of a woman navigating the perils and possibilities of a radically changing world, which has its Irish premiere on the Peacock stage. 

Unravelling the love stories we weave for ourselves and inviting us to question what compels us to tell them in the first place, Somewhere Out There You will preview from Wednesday, 27th September to Monday 2nd October, and runs from Tuesday, 3rd October to Saturday, 28th October. Playwright Nancy Harris, a Rooney Prize for Literature winner, is also behind The Dry, which is currently filming a second season after its successful debut on RTE.  

Casey's new boyfriend Brett is handsome, romantic and devoted – a dream come true. He writes poetry! He makes quiche! For once in her life Casey is in a relationship with a man who attends to her every whim and desire. But when her suspicious sister Cynthia starts digging into Brett's past, she threatens to take away the one good thing that's ever happened to Casey…   

Dazzlingly realised, this dramedy playfully skewers the expectations placed on us by our nearest and dearest, society at large – and ourselves – when it comes to finding and holding on to love, coupledom and romance. A reminder that following our hearts is often easier said than done, it asks us to consider who we get our meaning from, suggesting that true love starts within ourselves. 

Meanwhile, Ironbound, written by the Pulitzer-winning, Tony-nominated playwright Martyna Majok and directed by Aoife Spillane-Hinks, previews from Tuesday, 3rd to Thursday, 5th October and runs from Friday, 6th October to Saturday, 4th November. Majok is a Polish-born American playwright who's work Cost of Living won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 2018. Premiering on Broadway last year, it was a Tony Award nominee for Best Play at the 2023 Awards. 

Over the course of two decades and three relationships, Darja's humour, tenacity and closely guarded dreams have helped her to survive as an immigrant worker in a beat-up town in New Jersey. Now she's standing at a bus stop, reckoning with a precarious future, while American prosperity rushes by without her. 

Travelling across time but rooted to a single, vivid sense of place, Ironbound is a realist story of love and work – and the insecurity of both – leavened by moments of darkly arch humour. The play illuminates the structures of the society we find ourselves steeped in, and how high the odds are stacked against some – who doggedly play the hand they've been dealt regardless.

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