Phillip McMahon Knihy

You can paint your placards 'til the cows come home, but until you have marched through this town in five inch heels and fishnets, you will never know what it is to truly be a faggot on the front line.Told against the backdrop of Dublin's burgeoning gay rights movement of the 1980s and 1990s and the contemporary LGBTQ+ community of today, Once Before I Go charts the close friendship of Lynn, Daithí, and the luminous Bernard, and sits on the exhilarating edge between comedy, tragedy and melodrama.Exploring the fragile yet resilient bonds of Irish queer lives across three decades in Dublin, London and Paris, the play steps between the early days of the AIDS crisis and today's LGBTQ+ community, living in an era of marriage equality, gender self-determination, and untransmittable HIV.At once political, joyous and heart-breaking, Once Before I Go honours the fabulous people we lost along the way, and celebrates those who fight on.This edition was published to coincide with the world premiere at Dublin's Gate Theatre in October 2021.

Returning to his hometown after nearly two decades, Michael grapples with the memories and emotions tied to his past. Exiled from his family and having left the seminary, his unexpected homecoming is prompted by his mother's death. As he confronts the town that once rejected him, Michael must navigate the complex relationships and unresolved issues that linger from his childhood, ultimately seeking closure and understanding in a place that has shaped his identity.

From the writers of Alice in Funderland, Town is Dead is a living room musical, an ode to Dublin and an exploration of how Ireland treats its people. It looks at the future of the city through the eyes of one older citizen.