By the Bog of Cats is Marina Carr’s searing tragedy inspired by Euripides’ Medea and set in the Irish midlands. Spurned by the man she loves Hester Swaine lives as an outcast on the edge of the bog from where most of the settled community want her gone. Faced with the loss of her home and her only child, Hester conjures a desperate and tragic plan to revenge all those who rejected her.

The play is directed by Allie Whelan, a former Kildare Youth Theatre member and now one of a team of six in the Abbey Theatre’s innovative Young Curators Project. By the Bog of Cats is a Leaving Certificate English main text for students sitting the exam in 2019 and 2020.

Suitable for ages 14+