About the Event
Script Club is going on the road! We are delighted to be partnering with Dublin’s Abbey Theatre for a special event, which coincides with a Faber Drama Pop-Up shop in the theatre’s foyer to celebrate the long-standing relationship between Faber Drama and Irish playwrights. We’ll be discussing The Burial at Thebes, Seamus Heaney’s verse translation of Sophocles’ great classical tragedy Antigone, which was commissioned by the Abbey Theatre in 2004. Our Script Clubs are a fun and social way to delve deep into a publication from our drama list and to meet fellow Faber Members.
Resonantly contemporary, yet faithful to the specificity of the play’s time and place, The Burial at Thebes honours the irreconcilable claims of both its fiercely compelling heroine and her uncle, King Creon, as they enact an ancient but perennial conflict. The morality of private allegiance is pitched against the laws of the state, and language speaks truth to power, then and now.
It will be just like other book clubs: please read the script in advance, then come along and discuss it with some fellow readers over a complimentary drink. We’ll consider what it means to translate the Greek classics; the Irish history of Antigone; and the questions of loyalty, family, citizenship and war at the heart of the play. No need to perform or do any reading aloud unless you’re comfortable doing so – just bring some ideas and curiosity.
The session will be hosted by Lily Levinson, Editor, Drama, and will last around an hour and a half. Tickets cost €5. To book for this event, please email [email protected] to reserve your place.
This event coincides with the Abbey Theatre’s production of Marina Carr’s The Boy, which is inspired by Sophocles’ Theban Trilogy, and is available to see on the same day as the Script Club. For more information, click here.
The Faber Drama Pop-Up Shop at the Abbey Theatre runs from Tuesday, 30th September – Saturday, 1st November, and is open between 9 a.m. and 4 p.m. Visitors to the pop-up can browse and purchase a broad selection of new and classic plays, curated by Faber Drama’s editor; current season Abbey Theatre plays published by Faber; record their favourite memories from page and stage; and make recommendations to fellow theatre lovers.
Lily Levinson works on new plays – particularly by emerging and early-career playwrights – and books about theatre on Faber’s Drama list. In the past year, she has worked with playwrights including Kendall Feaver, Sam Grabiner, Tife Kusoro, Matthew López, LUNG Theatre and Joe Murphy and Joe Robertson.
The land of the living, sister,
Is neither here nor there.
We enter it and we leave it.
The dead in the land of the dead
Are the one you’ll be with the longest.
‘Another example of how lucky our language is to have Seamus Heaney working in it.’ Daily Telegraph
‘Heaney has found a way to make the play address the great contemporary themes without being didactic . . . It is resonant with glimpses of today’s conflict, yet it remains a classic whose key themes are timeless.’ Sunday Times
This event is in partnership with
Whatto Expect
Everything you need to know about this Faber Members event:
- This event is taking place at The Abbey Theatre, 26/27 Abbey Street Lower, North City, Dublin 1, D01 K0F1, Ireland.
- Please see travel information on The Abbey’s website: https://www.abbeytheatre.ie/your-visit/location/
- This event is taking place in the Abbey Bar.
- Please contact the Abbey Theatre directly for any accessibility questions/concerns by emailing [email protected].
- This session is designed for the general reader – those who wish to learn more about Heaney's play. No prior knowledge is required, but please read The Burial at Thebes in advance.
- Copies of The Burial at Thebes will be available to purchase at a 40% discount from the pop-up shop at the Abbey from 30 September.
About the Author
Seamus Heaney was born in County Derry in Northern Ireland. Death of a Naturalist, his first collection of poems, appeared in 1966, and was followed by poetry, criticism and translations which established him as the leading poet of his generation. In 1995 he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature, and twice won the Whitbread Book of the Year, for The Spirit Level (1996) and Beowulf (1999). Stepping Stones, a book of interviews conducted by Dennis O’Driscoll, appeared in 2008; Human Chain, his last volume of poems, was awarded the 2010 Forward Prize for Best Collection. He died in 2013. His translation of Virgil’s Aeneid Book VI was published posthumously in 2016 to critical acclaim, followed in 2018 by 100 Poems, a selection of poems from his entire career, chosen by his family.
Seamus HeaneyAbout the Author
Buy the Book
The Burial at Thebes, by Nobel Prize-winner Seamus Heaney, is a new verse translation of Sophocles’ great classical tragedy Antigone.
