A Stage Adaptation of Louise O’Neill’s acclaimed novel Asking for It, by Meadhbh Mchugh, in collaboration with Annabelle Comyn.
Asking for It had its world premiere as part of Cork Midsummer Festival in June 2018 and went on to perform a sold-out, two-week run at the Abbey Theatre, Dublin in November 2018. It was the landslide winner of the Audience Choice Award at the Irish Times Irish Theatre Awards.
This stage adaptation of Louise O’Neill’s devastating novel shines an unflinching light on the experience of a young woman whose life is changed forever by a horrific act of violence. One night in a small town in Co. Cork, where everyone knows everyone, things spiral terrifyingly out of control. What will happen now? – to Emma? To her family? To the others? This production demonstrates the power of gathering together to bear witness to a story as compelling as this one.
★★★★★ “powerful, provocative, hard-hitting, shocking … a sharply observed and at times wincingly true-to-life portrayal of a family and its disintegration … funny, infuriating and unbearably sad” – Irish Examiner (Read the full review HERE)
★★★★★ “It’s hard to watch. It’s necessary to see.” – The Reviews Hub (Read the full review HERE)
★★★★ “striking production … unsettling and alarming for good reason” – Irish Times (Read the full review HERE)
★★★★★ “Home truths on rape culture in an outstanding production” – Musings in Intermissions (Read the full review HERE)
“With a script by Meadhbh McHugh that is sharp and also very funny, Asking for It not only stays faithful to the novel, it goes further, raising it up to heaven and down to hell, too. It is worth the hype” – Irish Independent (Read the full review HERE)
Asking for It is a brave, brilliant book: “a genuinely heartbreaking, sickening and truthful examination of society’s penchant for victim-blaming, its treatment of women and the concept of rape culture” – The Guardian
“Try to be brave, grown-ups. O’Neill’s second novel may be scary, but it is riveting and essential. Teenagers will recognize its difficult truth and devour it – behind your backs, if need be” – The New York Times
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Written by Louise O’Neill
Director Annabelle Comyn
Set Designer Paul O’Mahony
Costume Designer Niamh Lunny
Lighting Designer Sinead Mckenna
Music and Sound Designer Philip Stewart
Video Designer Jack Phelan
Movement Director Sue Mythen
Starred Lauren Coe, Ali White, Venetia Bowe, Frank Blake, Sile Maguire, Amy McElhatton, Seán Doyle, Kwaku Fortune, Darragh Shannon, Charlie Maher, Frank McCusker and Paul Mescal (2018)
Starred Aisling Kearns, Dawn Bradfield, Venetia Bowe, Tiernan Messitt-Greene, Sile Maguire, Amy McElhatton, Seán Doyle, Kwaku Fortune, Darragh Shannon, Shane Lennon, Simon O’Gorman and Liam Heslin (2019)
Co-Commissioned by the Abbey Theatre
Funded through an Arts Council Open Call Award
AGE RECOMMENDATION: 16+
