The Kings of the Kilburn High Road is a play by Irish playwright Jimmy Murphy

Jimmy Murphy (playwright)

Jimmy Murphy is an Irish playwright living in Dublin.He is a former writer in residence at NUI Maynooth , a member of the Abbey Theatre’s Advisory Council and a recipient of three Bursaries in literature from the Arts Council/An Chomhairle Ealaíon. He is a member of Aosdána.Murphy was born to Irish...

 first produced by Red Kettle Theatre Company at the Garter Lane Theatre Waterford

Waterford

Waterford is a city in the South-East Region of Ireland. It is the oldest city in the country and fifth largest by population. Waterford City Council is the local government authority for the city and its immediate hinterland...

 Ireland in 2000. The first American production was staged by the Rochester Community Players

Rochester community players

The Rochester Community Players , the oldest community theatre in New York State, is a local professional theatre group in Rochester, Monroe County, New York, in the United States....

 of Rochester, New York, in April 2005. The name is an ironic reference to the characters, who frequent the Irish pubs of Kilburn High Road in the Kilburn district of London

London

London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

, an area renowned for its large Irish population.

The back-story

Six young Irish working men emigrate to London in the early 1970s. Like so many of their generation, they spend their lives in manual labor jobs; digging ditches or construction work. They intended to stay only a little while, make some money and return home as successful men, but that day never seemed to arrive. Now, twenty-something years later, still in London, five of them gather in the side room of a pub in an informal wake for one of them who has died. All are in their late-40s or early-50s. All but one (who had split off from the group years earlier and established a successful construction company of his own) are broken from lives of hard work and harder drinking. ,

The entire play takes place in one afternoon and evening at that pub, as the characters drink to their fallen friend; the only one to make it home, albeit in a coffin. Secrets are revealed and lies are uncovered.

Adapted into a motion picture Kings

Kings (film)

Kings is a 2007 Irish film written & directed by Tom Collins and based on Jimmy Murphy's play The Kings of the Kilburn High Road. The film is bilingual, having both Irish and English dialogues. It was premièred at the Taormina Film Festival in June 2006, and was selected as Ireland's official...

, directed by Tom Collins

Tom Collins

The Tom Collins is a type of Collins cocktail made from gin, lemon juice, sugar and carbonated water. First memorialized in writing in 1876 by "the father of American mixology" Jerry Thomas, this "Gin and Sparkling Lemonade" drink typically is served in a Collins glass over ice.-History:In 1874,...

, and premiered at the Taormina Film Festival (Italy) June 2006, and selected as Ireland's official entry for the 2008 Academy Awards

Academy Awards

An Academy Award, also known as an Oscar, is an accolade bestowed by the American Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize excellence of professionals in the film industry, including directors, actors, and writers...

for best foreign-language film.

External links

• http://theater.nytimes.com/mem/theater/treview.html?res=9A0DE2D91438F93AA25750C0A9649C8B63
• http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/culturemonster/2010/01/theater-review-the-kings-of-the-kilburn-high-road-at-the-banshee.html