Monged
Written by Gary Duggan Directed by Jim Culleton
Bernard works for an insurance company, wants to be a writer.
Dave works on a building site, wants to be a drug dealer.
Ray works in a bar, wants to be a musician.
They are all completely monged.
Monged is a 90-minute, destruction derby of a play.
Blackly comic, perceptive and exhilarating: a human pile-up in the heart of Dublin.
Winner of the Stewart Parker Trust Award 2006
Reviews
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‘Duggan writes very well…Jim Culleton’s slickly energetic production…a cross between Ulysses and a buddy movie…pacy, punchy narratives…a little gem of a performance ’
Fintan O’Toole, Irish Times -
‘hot-shot writer…imaginative and insightful…well worth a visit ’
Hot Press -
‘director Jim Culleton recognizes, like his designers, that Monged works best as a trip…words sweep the characters along with the pace of a fast-cut film montage…the script and stage provide constant stimulation…Monged hums with authorial insouciance and its limber approach conceals a more ambitious project: to render a city in surfaces, to measure youth in moments’
Irish Theatre Magazine -
‘well written…well staged…a lot of laughs…possible cult hit ’
RTE 1 /The View -
‘richly evocative…wonderful images…fine, pacy, stylised direction…Duggan writes beautifully…(Fishamble) continues to take risks on new writing and new ideas… smashed hit…climb aboard and enjoy the ride’
Sunday Tribune -
Cast
Emmet Kirwan
Emmet Kirwan is an award-winning actor and playwright from
Tallaght in Dublin. He studied drama and theatre studies at the Samuel Beckett Centre, Trinity College Dublin.
Over the last twenty years Emmet has worked and collaborated as both actor and writer with both THISISPOPBABY and Fishamble: The New Play company. THISISPOPBABY has commissioned Emmet to write this new work What If We Get To Be Happy, and previously the poetry sections of both of their smash hit shows RIOT and WAKE and he has collaborated many times with Phillip McMahon on both of their work, including Straight to Video, Alice in Funderland, and Dublin Oldschool which was developed as part of the Fishamble/Dublin Fringe/ITI Show in a Bag initiative. He first worked with Fishamble on Gary Duggan’s Monged over twenty years ago this year, and has worked on Tiny Plays for Ireland and America in New York and Washington DC, and The Leap, as an actor with the company since. This is his first time collaborating with the company as a playwright.
In this anniversary year also, Emmet has had a long and incredible artistic partnership with Project Arts Centre. They have supported him throughout his career both as an actor and playwright and have staged or co-produced all of his plays. It is an incredible honour to bring this new work home to the Project Arts in it’s 60th year.
Emmet has worked in Irish and English Theatre performing many times on stages such as Project Arts Centre, The Abbey Theatre, The Gate, Donmar Warehouse, The National Theatre of Britain, and The Soho, as well as working with leading theatre companies such as Rough Magic, Fishamble, THISISPOPBABY, Guna Nua, Story Tellers, Semper Fi Barabbas, Island, Performance Corporation amongst many others.
He has numerous film and television credits most recently the films Magpie and Spilt Milk, and KIN season 3.
His most recent work as a writer and performer is Accents. A spoken word verse play in a musical collaboration with Eoin French (who performs as Talos) and directed by Claire O’Reilly of Malaprop theatre company. It was produced by Cian O’Brien and Caoimhe Whelan for COBA Productions. This played two sell out runs in Project Arts Centre and embarked on a sell out
nationwide tour in 2025. It was the first play to debut at the recently reopened Ambassador Theatre. His multi-character video shop set, hit comedy play Straight to Video, was produced by Landmark Productions and Project Arts Centre.
As a playwright performer Emmet’s play Dublin Oldschool directed by Phillip McMahon won the Stewart Parker award for playwriting, it was produced by Project Arts Centre and did seven
sell out runs there before touring internationally and transferring to The Dorfman in The National Theatre for a sell out run. It was adapted into a feature film with Element Pictures and opened in
Irish and British cinemas in 2018 and international festivals including the London BFI. It returned to The Olympia Theatre in 2024.
Emmet also wrote the poetry sections and performed in THISISPOPBABY’S RIOT, which has played Vicar Street in Dublin and toured internationally to The Sydney theatre festival and Skirball New York. His poem Heartbreak is taken from this show and was adapted in to a short film that won an Irish Film and Television Award for Best Short Film.
Other writing includes the radio drama Wild West (2018) for BBC 4, (nominated for Best Radio Drama Award 2019 from The Writers Guild of Ireland) and Queen of The Pyramids (2019) for
Landmark Productions. He was also funded by the Arts Council to develop his play The
Last Partholonian a play based on the first cycle of Irish Mythology. It received a performed reading directed by Oonagh Murphy.
He is also known for writing and starring in the RTÉ 2 comedy series Sarah and Steve for Accomplice television.
Productions
Creative Team
Jim Culleton
Jim Culleton is the Artistic Director of Fishamble: The New Play Company, for which he has directed productions on tour throughout Ireland, UK, Europe, Australia, New Zealand, Canada and the US. His productions for Fishamble have won Olivier, The Stage, Scotsman Fringe First, and Irish Times Best Director awards.
Jim has also directed for the Abbey, the Gaiety, the Belgrade, 7:84 Scotland, Project, Amharclann de hÍde, Tinderbox, Passion Machine, the Ark, Second Age, Dundee Rep, CoisCéim/Crash Ensemble/GIAF, Frontline Defenders, Amnesty International, Little Museum of Dublin, Fighting Words, Soho Theatre, Scripts Festival, and Baptiste Programme. He has directed audio plays for Audible, BBC, RTÉ Radio 1, and RTÉ lyric fm. He has directed for Vessel and APA (Australia), TNL (Canada), Solas Nua, Mosaic, and Kennedy Center (Washington DC), Odyssey (LA), Origin, Irish Arts Center, New Dramatists, and 59E59 (Off-Broadway), as well as for Trafalgar Theatre Productions on the West End, and IAC/Symphony Space on Broadway. Jim has taught for NYU, NUI, GSA, Uversity, the Lir, Villanova, Notre Dame, UM, UMD, JNU, and TCD.
Productions
Sabine Dargent
Sabine Dargent has won two Irish Times Best Set Design Awards and been nominated for two others. She is a freelance Set and Costume Designer, working mostly in theatre, with various directors and companies.
Sabine has designed a few times for Jim Culleton and Fishamble Theatre Company which she always enjoys! As well as other shows for Jim, including Monged, Strandline, Tiny Plays for Ireland 1 & 2, and Spinning, she designed set and costumes for The Pride of Parnell Street, also written by Sebastian Barry, and designed by the same team. Sabine works with Mikel Murfi very often, also for Michael Keegan Dolan, Conall Morrison, Enda Walsh, Paul Mc Enaney, Selina Cartmell, and a lot of others in Ireland and abroad. Some productions she has designed have been very successful and toured for a long time, such as Swan Lake, The Walworth Farce, Rian, The Pride of Parnell Street… S
he loves theatre, dance, and physical theatre, but has also designed for exhibitions, films, and has designed big events, such as the GAA 2016 celebration in Croke Park, and street theatre, such as the St Patrick’s Dublin Parade sections City Fusion and Brighter, taking care of the visuals for costumes, floats, props, and make up, for about 200 participants.
Productions
Mark Galione
Mark Galione’s designs in Ireland include works for Irish Modern Dance Theatre, CoisCéim, Dance Theatre of Ireland, The Peacock, Fíbín, Hands Turn, Classic Stage Ireland, Barabbas, Vesuvius, The Derry Playhouse, The Ark, Peer to Peer, Gonzo, Theatre Lovett, Second Age Theatre Company, Barnstorm, Riot and I’m Your Man for THISISPOPBABY and Fishamble: The New Play Company most recently Swing and Inside The GPO.
Recent TV includes Jack Lukeman 27 Club, All Ireland Schools Talent Search, TG4 – Country Music Legends and The All Porter Christmas Show RTE2. Mark is a staff Lighting Designer at High Res Lighting.