For over ten years, Fighting Words and the Abbey Theatre have had a uniquely productive relationship. For a decade now, short plays, written and developed by teenage playwrights at Fighting Words, have been professionally directed and performed on The Abbey stage in an annual one-day festival.

The growing strength of this uplifting collaboration led to talks about creating something more ambitious, a single piece of theatre that would attempt to capture a glimpse of young lives nationwide.

And then . . . the pandemic hit.

The Abbey went dark, in-house workshops at Fighting Words were suspended. However, over the course of a year a group of writers, along with two Fighting Words mentors and the organisation’s programme coordinator, met regularly over Zoom, where the young writers continued to think, talk and write about their experiences of living in an altered world.

The result is WINDOWS 21 a glancing look at young lives fighting for breath in the face of a global crisis.

Written by eight young writers, aged between 15 and 18 (who sadly never had the joy of being in an actual room together eating biscuits and reading each other’s work), the piece stands as a testament to their continued desire to write and communicate through these tough and sometimes lonely times.

From not going clubbing because you’re living with your vulnerable nan, to the dark inner world of a Deliveroo cyclist, via the Gods debating the meaning of love, this is theatre at its purest, most honest and joyous.

WINDOWS 21 is proudly brought to you by Michael Lavery, Ray McHallem, Louí Montague, Aisling Murphy, Emily Murray Nelson, Éadaoin O’Neill, Joe Reidy and Selina Xu.

Online Programme 

Download the online programme for Windows 21 here.

Trailer 

Production Images 

Images – Ros Kavanagh