This is Paradise

I feel so fucking silly
but I thought they meant real peace
fucking hell Katey
I thought they meant that even my body
it might stop
breaking

Northern Ireland, 1998. The Good Friday Agreement has just been signed, and politicians are shaking hands and declaring peace in our time. Away from all that spectacle, Kate receives an urgent phone call. As she travels to the coastal town of Portbenoney to confront an old lover, dark memories of their life 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 August 2022.