The Unmanageable Sisters

About Deirdre Kinahan

Michel Tremblay is a French Canadian novelist and playwright born in Montreal Quebec. His first professionally produced play Les Belles-Surs was written in 1965 and premiered at the Théâtre du Rideau Vert on August 28 1968. It stirred up controversy by portraying the lives of working-class women and attacking the straight-laced deeply religious society of mid-20th century Quebec. A version of the play in Scots English The Guid Sisters translated by Bill Findlay and Martin Bowman was premiered at the Tron Theatre Glasgow in 1989; and a version set in Ireland The Unmanageable Sisters by Deirdre Kinahan premiered at the Abbey Theatre Dublin in 2018. His other notable works include: À toi pour toujours ta Marie-Lou (1970); La grosse femme d'à côté est enceinte (1978); Albertine en cinq temps (Albertine in Five Times) (1984); Le Vrai Monde? (1987); and Messe solennelle pour une pleine lune d'été (Solemn Mass for a Full Moon in Summer) (1996). Deirdre Kinahan is an award-winning playwright and a member of Aosdána Ireland's elected body of outstanding artists. Her plays include: An Old Song Half Forgotten (Abbey Theatre 2023); Outrage (Fishamble 2022); The Visit (Draiocht Dublin Theatre Festival 2021); The Saviour (Landmark Productions 2021); In the Middle of the Fields (Solas Nua DC 2021); Embargo (Fishamble 2020); Dear Ireland (Abbey Theatre 2020); The Bloodied Field (Abbey Theatre 2020); Rathmines Road (Fishamble and Abbey Theatre 2018); Crossings (Pentabus Theatre 2018); The Unmanageable Sisters an adaptation of Michel Tremblay's Les Belles Soeurs (Abbey Theatre Dublin 2018); Wild Sky (Dublin 2016); Spinning (Fishamble 2014); Halcyon Days (Solstice Arts Centre Co. Meath and Dublin Theatre Festival 2012); and Moment (Solstice Arts Centre Co. Meath 2009; Bush Theatre London 2011). In 2024 she and actor Bryan Murray were jointly awarded the inaugural Pratchett Prize for challenging the stigma of Alzheimer's Disease for Kinahan's play An Old Song Half Forgotten.