In addition to being a national treasure and the grande dame of Irish letters, she wrote nine plays for the stage, the final one being Joyce’s Women, staged at the Abbey in 2022. Lara Marlowe wrote of her then, in The Irish Times, “Edna O’Brien is a theatre unto herself, at the same time fierce and vulnerable, serious and flamboyant, proud and self-deprecating, weary and enthusiastic.”
Artistic Director of the Abbey Theatre, Caitríona McLaughlin, speaking of her passing, said: “Edna O’Brien taught me the power of speaking truth and the beauty of living life unafraid of popular opinion. She was our truest revolutionary because she lived as she wrote, refusing to be silenced. Edna told the truth about the inner lives of the women who bowed their veiled heads at mass every Sunday. She took us all from the periphery and put us at the centre of the narrative. She was relentless, fearless and brilliant. I had the honour of working with her at the Abbey in 2022 when we produced Joyce’s Women. They say, ‘never meet your heroes’ – they are wrong.”
Edna will be deeply missed by those who knew and loved her, and by the countless others who read and took strength from her words.
Edna O’Brien’s canon at the Abbey Theatre:
9 October 1974: World Premiere of The Gathering on the Abbey Stage, directed by Barry Davis.
17 November 1977: Irish Premiere of A Pagan Place on the Abbey stage, directed by Patrick Mason.
28 February 2019: A new stage adaptation of The Country Girls, on the Abbey stage, written and adapted by Edna O’Brien, directed by Graham McLaren
15 December 2020: On the occasion of her 90th birthday, Edna O’Brien delivered the annual T.S. Eliot lecture, livestreamed from the Irish Embassy in London.
17 September 2022: World Premiere of Joyce’s Women, a co-production between the Abbey Theatre and Eilene Davidson Productions, directed by Conall Morrison.
Edna O’Brien served as a shareholder of the National Theatre Society Limited until 2005 and as a member of the theatre’s Honorary Council from 2006 to date.
Lead photo credit: John Minihan.
Edna O’Brien pictured with President Michael D. Higgins and Sabina Higgins, and the company of the Abbey Theatre production of Joyce’s Women – written by Edna O’Brien, directed by Conall Morrison, in September 2022. Image: Mark Stedman
