Murphy Plays: 5 brings together four of the authors recent works: The Wake, Too Late for Logic, The House, and Alice Trilogy. The Wake recounts the story of a woman, returning from the USA to her home town in Ireland. As her family learn of her years as a prostitute, she finds the drewam of her homecoming turning into a nightmare. A homecoming play that is haunting yet fiercely comic. Too Late for Logic: "A major new play...these scenes are beautifully imagined, ache with feeling, and flower into incidents of piercing sadness or absurd laughter" (The Times) The House: "The most compelling indictment of emigration ever committed to the stage" (Irish Times) Alice Trilogy dramatises three stages in Alice's life: 1980, in the afternoon murk of her attic, is Alice losing her grip on reality? 1995, she has summoned a lost love to meet her by the gasworks wall. 2005, at the airport: if the worst has happened, why is it bearable?

Introduction by: Nicholas Grene