“Arlington deals with the capacity to survive loss and death, and shows the playwright enthusiastically embracing a new form of theatre that includes drama, dance, music and visual art. Arlington is certainly a powerful dystopian drama…Walsh weaves his closely textured poetic prose into a new form of comprehensive, category-defying theatre.” –The Guardian
“A powerfully political work…a metaphor for our increasingly homogenized and controlled society.” –The Sunday Independent
In a waiting room, inside a tower, Isla waits for her number to be called. A young woman finally understands her fate. And a young man faces a stark decision.
In the midst of a bleak and terrifying world, Arlington is a compelling ode to the human spirit and its power to endure. It premiered at Galway International Arts Festival in 2016 in a production by the festival and Landmark Productions, directed by the playwright. It received its U.S. premiere at St. Ann’s Warehouse in Brooklyn in May 2017.
Arlington is published in this edition alongside three short theatre installation—Kitchen, A Girl’s Bedroom and Room 303—performed in New York City in a co-production by St. Ann’s Warehouse and the Irish Arts Center under the collective title Rooms.
One of our most innovative and beguiling writers, Enda Walsh is the author of five Edinburgh Fringe First Award-winning plays, including The Walworth Farce and The New Electric Ballroom. His other plays include Penelope, Misterman, and the book for the Tony and Olivier Award-winning musical Once, as well as his collaboration with David Bowie on the musical Lazarus. He also wrote the screenplay for Hunger, which won the Caméra d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival.
