Cycling Proficiency: The Road to Recovery

Owen McCafferty’s second collection includes plays that span from the sinking of the Titanic to the lingering aftermath of the Troubles in twenty-first-century Belfast.

Absence of Women
‘A fine example of theatre at its small-scale best.’ Evening Standard

Titanic
‘Owen McCafferty’s rigorous verbatim play provides an antidote to Titanic fatigue… Two months of hearings from 97 witnesses are whittled down to nine… What remains, even after a century, is a disturbing sense of moral ambiguity: 1, 517 dead and no one to blame.’ Guardian

Quietly
‘Remarkable. inspired. The piece packs sweeping questions about forgiveness and accountability into a tightly plotted encounter.’ Daily Telegraph

Unfaithful
‘McCafferty writes with empathy and a wry humour that makes for an absorbing – if painful – hour.’ Financial Times

Death of a Comedian
‘Despite the humour, McCafferty’s play is a tragedy. his most accomplished work to date.’ Belfast Telegraph

Three plays, ‘all written for live theatre – with the emphasis on live’, and all first performed at the Stephen Joseph Theatre, Scarborough: The Revengers’ Comedies (1989); Things We Do for Love (1997); and House & Garden (1999).

The Revengers’ Comedies
A hugely entertaining pitch that recalls the old movies to which it frequently pays homage – Strangers on a Train, Rebecca, Kind Hearts and Coronets – and expands after intermission to reveal an immensely disturbing vision of contemporary middle-class England poisoned by the rise of economic ruthlessness and the collapse of ethics. New York Times

Things We Do for Love
Lloyds Private Banking Playwright of the Year Award
One of his best, his most shockingly and uproariously funny: a cruel and hilarious masterpiece of tragic comedy and comic tragedy. Sunday Times

House & Garden
The triumph of his ingenuity lies in the fact that you have to see both plays . . . A second time round, in whichever order you take them, characters will deepen, while those you know become the background. It is a superb Ayckbourn joke that a comedy about non-communication should depend on the sharpest communication skills. Sunday Times