Brian McAvera

Brian McAvera is a dramatist, director, curator and art historian. He has written 25 stage plays, radio plays for the BBC and RTE (many of them translated) and two television films, one of which he directed. He has directed for the stage, including the world premiere of John Arden’s The Ballygombeen Bequest, and was co-founder of New Writers’ Theatre in Belfast in the early 1980s. At intervals he has taught or lectured in schools, colleges and universities.

His best-known plays (published by Oberon Books) include Picasso’s Women, a series of eight monologues first performed at the National Theatre in London, and at the Edinburgh Festival. They have since been translated into 15 languages. Other works include The Troubles trilogy, Yo! Picasso!, Kings of the Road and Francis & Frances. He is an artistic adviser to Focus Theatre, Dublin, and sits on the theatre committee of the Writers’ Guild.

In the world of visual arts, he has published 12 books including Art, Politics and Ireland. He writes regularly for the Irish Arts Review and Sculpture (in the USA).