Trespasses

Emma Donoghue

Born in Dublin, Ireland, in October 1969, I am the youngest of eight children of Frances and Denis Donoghue (the literary critic). I attended Catholic convent schools in Dublin, apart from one eye-opening year in New York at the age of ten. In 1990 I earned a first-class honours BA in English and French from University College Dublin (unfortunately, without learning to actually speak French). I moved to England, and in 1997 received my PhD (on the concept of friendship between men and women in eighteenth-century English fiction) from the University of Cambridge. From the age of 23, I have earned my living as a writer, and have been lucky enough to never have an ‘honest job’ since I was sacked after a single summer month as a chambermaid. After years of commuting between England, Ireland, and Canada, in 1998 I settled in London, Ontario, where I live with Chris Roulston and our son Finn and daughter Una.

Trespasses

Trespasses (1997). This two-act play, based on my radio play of the same name for RTE, is about a rare Irish witch trial of the seventeenth century: the case of Florence Newton in Youghal.

Cast: eleven roles, which can be played by two women and four men.

PUBLICATION

Trespasses is published in Emma Donoghue: Selected Plays (London: Oberon Books, 2015).

PRODUCTIONS

Workshop production, International Women Playwrights Conference, 1997

Cheltenham Festival of Literature Youth Drama Festival, produced by Cirencester College, 11-19 October 1997

photo of cast of Trespasses, Cheltenham Festival of Literature Youth Drama Festival, 1997

ADAPTATION

Trespasses was adapted by Raymond Deane into an opera, Vagabones, which had its world premiere in Ireland in 2019. https://www.facebook.com/operacollectiveireland/videos/2382413671875906/?v=2382413671875906