''Terminus'' is a

monologue In theatre, a monologue (from el, μονόλογος, from μόνος ''mónos'', "alone, solitary" and λόγος ''lógos'', "speech") is a speech presented by a single character, most often to express their thoughts aloud, though sometimes a ...

play by

Mark O'Rowe Mark O'Rowe is an Irish playwright and screenwriter. Life Mark O'Rowe was born in 1970 in Dublin, Ireland, to parents Hugh and Patricia O'Rowe (to whom he dedicated his 1999 play, ''Howie the Rookie''). He grew up in Tallaght, a working class s ...

. Written entirely in

rhyme A rhyme is a repetition of similar sounds (usually, the exact same phonemes) in the final stressed syllables and any following syllables of two or more words. Most often, this kind of perfect rhyming is consciously used for a musical or aesthetic ...

, the play follows three characters over the course of a single night in

Dublin Dublin (; , or ) is the capital and largest city of Ireland. On a bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the province of Leinster, bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, a part of the Wicklow Mountains range. At the 2016 ...

: a former schoolteacher (A), her lonely, estranged daughter (B), and a serial killer who has sold his soul to the Devil (C). ''Terminus'' premiered at the

Abbey Theatre The Abbey Theatre ( ga, Amharclann na Mainistreach), also known as the National Theatre of Ireland ( ga, Amharclann Náisiúnta na hÉireann), in Dublin, Ireland, is one of the country's leading cultural institutions. First opening to the pu ...

in Dublin on 9 June 2007, before transferring to the

Traverse Theatre The Traverse Theatre is a theatre in Edinburgh, Scotland. It was founded in 1963 by John Calder, John Malcolm, Jim Haynes and Richard Demarco. The Traverse Theatre company commissions and develops new plays or adaptations from contemporary p ...

as part of the

Edinburgh Fringe Festival The Edinburgh Festival Fringe (also referred to as The Fringe, Edinburgh Fringe, or Edinburgh Fringe Festival) is the world's largest arts and media festival, which in 2019 spanned 25 days and featured more than 59,600 performances of 3,841 dif ...

where it won a Fringe First Award in 2008. It was revived by the Abbey in 2009 and again in 2011 with an international tour.

Original cast

* Andrea Irvine as A *

Eileen Walsh Eileen Walsh (born 16 April 1977) is an Irish actress. Biography Born and raised in Cork, Ireland, Walsh was raised in a Catholic household, and had no intention of becoming an actress, until she followed in the footsteps of her elder sister ...

as B * Aidan Kelly as C

2011 Revival Cast

Olwen Fouéré Olwen Fouéré (born March 2, 1954) is an Irish actress and writer/director in theatre, film and visual arts. She was born in Galway, Ireland to Breton parents Yann Fouéré and Marie-Magdeleine Mauger. In 2020, she was listed at number 22 on ...

as A * Catherine Walker as B * Declan Conlon as C

References

2007 plays Irish plays {{2000s-play-stub