Born in Dublin in 1971, McPherson studied at the University College of Dublin and wrote for the school’s drama society. He then founded Fly by Night Theatre, producing several of his plays there. McPherson’s plays began winning awards early on, with his second play The Good Thief winning the Steward Parker Award, and The Weir winning the Laurence Olivier Award for Best New Play in 1999. He has been described as the “finest dramatist of his generation” by The Daily Telegraph, and has won 12 awards for his work. He has also written and directed several films, including the award-winning Saltwater. His work is dominantly steeped in Irish life, making him a modern icon of Irish culture.
QUOTES
In The Arts Desk
“The most powerful stories for me are supernatural ones ... Ireland being at the westernmost edge of Europe, part of our mythic thing is that there’s a beyond that we know nothing about.”- In The Arts Desk
In The Guardian:
“It’s like there’s a nuclear reactor of anxiety constantly churning away, and the product is these plays that pop out every so often. If I wasn’t plagued by a need to write things, that would perhaps be a blessing.”
“Human beings are animals: 90% of our behaviour is animal behaviour, and we’ve just got this 10% veneer, the semblance of civilized, rational choice. Our thoughts are always trailing around after our appetites, justifying them with language: it’s tragic and it’s hilarious. That’s the picture I put together in my plays: of the animals who can talk, and think because of that they know everything.”
“I’m living as an artist and that’s a staggering feeling, it’s a total luxury. And because you have this amazing chance, with so much freedom, I’m determined to make something that is worth that. I feel this responsibility – to create something that makes an audience feel, which takes them somewhere. But that’s very hard to achieve.”
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