HEAVEN is set in the Irish midlands, during the weekend of a local wedding. Mairead and Mal live ordinary lives.

Perhaps attending a wedding will help, or it might raise questions that are difficult to answer. 

They run headlong into unresolved relationships, unrealised dreams, and a land of ‘what might have been?’ The play is delivered as a pair of criss-crossing monologues, which makes perfect sense for a couple exploring carnal hungers they could never share. A perfect marriage of inciteful, muscular character writing and nuanced, dynamic delivery from the two great actors - Lucy Miller and Noel Hodda -, makes HEAVEN a captivating experience.

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O’ Brien keeps his crises simple. For Mairead it’s Breffni, an old flame with whom she still shares a sizzling sexual chemistry; a connection absent in her marriage. For Mal, it’s a confrontation with the homosexual urges sublimated for decades into sexual fantasies of Christ, stigmata and all. When his perfect ‘Jesus’ walks into the wedding venue, Mal starts making choices well outside the norm as a respected teacher. 

HEAVEN an overwhelmingly compassionate portrait of marriage, brimming over with wit and pathos. 

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‘beautiful, eloquent, and deeply satisfying theatre, full of humanity and truth…told with immense affection, candour, and brilliance’ ★★★★ - Scotsman 

‘combines form and content to such devastatingly potent effect’ ★★★★★ - The Arts Desk