The plays in this book are rough. They are bawdy, gruff, and harsh too. At one time or another, most of them were produced professionally for the stage or radio. Each play features Alan Titley”s trademark playfulness with words, his interest in literary allusion, and, of course, his black humour, which has won him both plaudits and criticism in equal measure. A common theme is that the Irish rural life is not the idyll that is often proposed, but the opposite. Written in an effort to finish off the Stage Oirishman, once and for all, these dramas present an alternative vision of country life on stage – and it”s no walk in the park.