London Performance Studios is pleased to present ‘Reasons for Staying’, a script-in-hand performance directed by Alastair Curtis.

Maeve Derivan is drinking alone in the backroom of an Irish pub in London one November night in 1986.

When she overhears a young couple at a nearby table making plans for a new life together in Ireland, she is transported back twenty years to when she was a terrified schoolgirl, sailing to England in search of the abortion she couldn’t get at home.

A group of strangers gather around her, to hear her story and share their own. Each has their own version of Ireland: a place of freedom and oppression, tradition and revolt. But as the night draws on, their thoughts turn to the country’s latest political crisis — and they find their conversation has endangered them all.

‘Reasons for Staying’ is an urgent exploration of immigration and identity by Colm Ó Clúbhán. It premiered in London in 1986 and this is its first professional production in 40 years. In addition to the play, Nicky Harris will be performing several songs originally written by Ó Clúbhán for the Brixton Faeries in the late 1970s.

Ó Clúbhán was an Irish poet, playwright and gay activist who migrated from Dublin to South London in 1973. He wrote half a dozen plays for the stage and radio, including ‘Friends of Rio Rita’s’ and ‘Fair Game’, before his AIDS-related death in 1989. None of them have yet been published.

Cast

Connor Byrne – Thomas MacAneave
Cavan Clarke – Martin O’Tyne
Liadán Dunlea –Alice Newman
Taylor McClaine – Cormac Tireney
Justine Mitchell – Maeve Derivan
with Nicky Harris

Creative Team

Director: Alastair Curtis
Costume and Set Designers: Max Allen & Elliott Adcock
Music and Sound Designers: Helen Noir
Lighting Designer and Technical Manager: Sorcha Stott-Strzala
Producers: Izzy Parriss, Alastair Curtis
Production Assistant: Cara Dromgoole
Event Production: KIND
Graphics: Tom Joyes, Fran Ortega
PR: Harry Engall
Language Consultant: Roisin Whelan

With thanks to Derek Evans, Mary Evans Young and Ed Madden.

This event was organised by Alastair Curtis, as part of the Associate Artists Programme.

About

Alastair Curtis (he/him) is a writer, director and founder of The AIDS Plays Project. His writing has been published in Frieze, AnOther, The Economist, Prospect and The Observer amongst others. Sweetheart, his debut short film, premiered at Sundance Film Festival 2025.