WexFour — four plays by four Wexford writers — is a unique publication originating in work commissioned especially for the commemoration of the 40th Anniversary of the Wexford Arts Centre — Ireland’s oldest arts venue of its kind.

John Banville, Eoin Colfer, Billy Roche and Colm Tóibín share one thing in common: their Wexford origins. While these four plays are each quite distinct in tone, overall they manage to deliver the humour and earthiness that characterise the Wexford psyche. John Banville’s high pastiche romp, Prince Charming and the Dame, is set in the dressing room of a provincial theatre and Eoin Colfer’s darkly hilarious monologue, My Real Life, presents a man dictating his own eulogy to his iPhone. In Billy Roche’s play The Dog and Bone, a woman reflects on a life torn by regret and misguided passions. The closing piece, “Erosion,” by Colm Tóibín, is a lyrical study of isolation and loneliness.

Editor Ben Barnes describes the collection in his introduction as, “short works illuminated by skilful writing’ where ‘all traverse the familiar territory of loneliness and loss; of spirited humour in the face of diversity; of a battered but still resilient hope for, and belief in, a better future.”

The original paperback edition of this book is from Carysfort Press, Dublin and the Electronic Edition from 451 Editions, an indepdendent imprint that publishes in traditional and electronic formats.

Billy Roche

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