Green Shield Stamps, a million of them, and Ger Lawless has won them all. It's Ballymun, it's 1974, and she has fifteen friends round for a stamp-sticking party.
Over one fateful night, fifteen determined women bring you into their lives in this funny and furious new version of Michel Tremblay's fêted Québécoise comedy, Les Belles-Soeurs.
Deirdre Kinahan's The Unmanageable Sisters premiered at the Abbey Theatre, Dublin, in March 2018.
Deirdre Kinahan's other plays include Wild Sky, Spinning, Halcyon Days, BOGBOY and Moment.
'Lays bare a heartlessness at the heart of the so called salt of the earth... extremely enjoyable'
— The Arts Review
'Exploding the myth that tight-knit, working-class communities are female sanctuaries, this play does for Dublin Corporation flats of the 1970s what John B Keane did for 1950s rural Ireland: exposing a greedy, judgmental cruelty at odds with misty-eyed nostalgia'
— The Times
'A rollicking free-for-all... One million Green Shield stamps. Fifteen delightful characters. 130 minutes of rib-tickling comedy... an absolute joy'
— Broadway World
Author Biography:
Michel Tremblay is a French Canadian novelist and playwright, born in Montreal, Quebec. His first professionally produced play, Les Belles-Sœurs, was written in 1965 and premiered at the Théâtre du Rideau Vert on August 28, 1968. It stirred up controversy by portraying the lives of working-class women and attacking the straight-laced, deeply religious society of mid-20th century Quebec. A version of the play in Scots English, The Guid Sisters, translated by Bill Findlay and Martin Bowman, was premiered at the Tron Theatre, Glasgow, in 1989; and a version set in Ireland, The Unmanageable Sisters by Deirdre Kinahan, premiered at the Abbey Theatre, Dublin, in 2018.
His other notable works include: À toi, pour toujours, ta Marie-Lou (1970); La grosse femme d'à côté est enceinte (1978); Albertine, en cinq temps (Albertine in Five Times) (1984); Le Vrai Monde? (1987); and Messe solennelle pour une pleine lune d'été (Solemn Mass for a Full Moon in Summer) (1996).
Deirdre Kinahan is an award-winning playwright and a member of Aosdána, Ireland's elected body of outstanding artists.
Her plays include: An Old Song, Half Forgotten (Abbey Theatre, 2023); Outrage (Fishamble, 2022); The Visit (Draiocht, Dublin Theatre Festival 2021); The Saviour (Landmark Productions, 2021); In the Middle of the Fields (Solas Nua DC, 2021); Embargo (Fishamble 2020); Dear Ireland (Abbey Theatre, 2020); The Bloodied Field (Abbey Theatre 2020); Rathmines Road (Fishamble and Abbey Theatre, 2018); Crossings (Pentabus Theatre, 2018); The Unmanageable Sisters, an adaptation of Michel Tremblay's Les Belles Soeurs (Abbey Theatre, Dublin, 2018); Wild Sky (Dublin, 2016); Spinning (Fishamble, 2014); Halcyon Days (Solstice Arts Centre, Co. Meath, and Dublin Theatre Festival, 2012); and Moment (Solstice Arts Centre, Co. Meath, 2009; Bush Theatre, London, 2011).
