The Cave is a world premiere production written by acclaimed writer Kevin Barry and directed by Abbey Theatre Artistic Director, Caitríona McLaughlin. The cast features Tommy Tiernan, with further cast to be announced in the coming weeks. 

We meet the McRae brothers in a dead zone in the mountains of south county Sligo. Sleeping rough in a cave and in trouble with the law, Archie and Bopper are running out of road. This desperate pair have only each other to rely on as they try to restart their van, their lives and their WiFi connection.

The Cave is an unforgettable black comedy from the pen of one of Ireland’s most beloved writers.  

Find out more about the other plays which are part of our 2025 programme here.

Kevin Barry  

Kevin Barry’s stage credits include There Are Little Kingdoms (Meridian Theatre Company, Cork, 2008; Keegan Theater Company,  Washington DC, 2009; Decadent Theatre Company, Galway, 2021), Burn The Bad Lamp (Town Hall Theatre, Galway, 2010), Autumn Royal (Everyman Palace, Cork, 2017, 2018; Irish Repertory Theater, New York 2021) and Guests Of The Nation  (Corcadorca, Cork, 2022.) Autumn Royal was awarded the BBC Northern Ireland Drama Award in 2018. He has also written half a dozen radio plays for RTÉ and the BBC, including Maybe the Night and Toronto and the State of Grace, both of which were medal winners at the New York Festival Radio Awards. He wrote the film script for Dark Lies the Island, 2019, and has several other feature scripts in development. He has published four novels, including most recently The Heart in Winter, and three short story collections, most recently That Old Country Music. His literary awards include the International Dublin Literary Award, the European Union Prize for Literature, the Goldsmiths Prize, the Rooney Prize for Irish Literature, the Lannan Foundation Literary Award, the Sunday Times Short Story Prize, the O Henry Story Prize, the Edge Hill Short Story Prize and many more. His work has been translated into more than 30 languages and his short stories and essays regularly appear in the New Yorker, Harpers, Granta and elsewhere. He is the co-editor and publisher of Winter Papers, Ireland’s annual arts anthology. Originally from Limerick city, he now lives in County Sligo.