Have you ever walked past a homeless person begging in the street and turned your head away pretending not to see them? When Derry playwright Brian Foster did so, the sense of guilt he felt compelled him to write his play, Myra's Story. coming to Dublin's Gaiety Theatre this month.
Below, Brian revisits the inspiration behind Myra's Story...
It happened some years back on a freezing cold December day when I was down in Dublin on business. Spotting a homeless woman ahead of me begging on Ha’penny Bridge as I crossed over, I hurried past, pretending to talk into my mobile. I shot her a quick glance as she hunkered low holding out a plastic cup. She was maybe mid-forties, with high cheekbones and piercing green eyes. Her bruised face still held traces of a past beauty. Back in the comfort of Wynn’s Hotel, I could not help but wonder... who was she? What had life thrown at her that had caused her to end up like that?
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I returned to the bridge within the hour, hoping to clear my conscience with a donation. But she was gone. All that remained as evidence of her existence was her empty plastic begging cup lying on the grubby piece of cardboard on which she’d squatted.
Back home in Derry, I could not get that tragic lady’s face out of my head. It haunted me for days, for weeks, until finally the sense of guilt made me sit down and begin writing. A month later I had completed the first draft of Myra's Story. The original story I set in my native Derry, then later re-wrote it with a Dublin setting.
Why is the play so successful? Because, although set in Dublin, the story could take place in any town, in any city, worldwide.
The story depicts a day in the life of middle-aged homeless alcoholic, Myra McLaughlin, living rough on the streets of Dublin. As she begs from passers-by she relives her backstory. Playing all the larger-than-life Dublin characters, male and female, acting out all the hilarious, harrowing and ultimately heart-breaking twists and turns of life that have taken her to alcoholism and destitution.
Audiences laugh and cry (often at the same time) as Myra sweeps them along on a rollercoaster of emotions. Hers is the face we so often turn away from in public, pretending not to see.
Myra McLaughlin, living rough on the streets of Dublin.'
With the brilliant Dublin actor Fíonna Hewitt-Twamley giving astonishing performances, Myra's Story has been a phenomenal success wherever it plays, with standing ovations in venues seating up to 1500 people, including four sellout Edinburgh fringes and a London West End run. Why is the play so successful? Because, although set in Dublin, the story could take place in any town, in any city, worldwide. The twin evils of homelessness and addiction being universal, audience members wherever can relate to the damaged character they see up on stage. Myra is their sister, their brother, their mother their father. Myra is any one of them - any one of us. As she says in the play, ‘there but for the grace of God’.
Myra's Play is at the Gaiety Theatre, Dublin from May 5th - 10th 2025 - find out more here.
