Asking for It (NHB Modern Plays)

One night in a small town in County Cork, where everyone knows everyone, things spiral terrifyingly out of control. What will happen now to Emma? To her family? To the others?

This stage adaptation of Louise O'Neill's devastating novel, Asking for It, shines an unflinching light on the experience of a young woman whose life is changed for ever by a horrific act of violence.

Adapted by Meadhbh McHugh, in collaboration with its director Annabelle Comyn, the play premiered at the Everyman, Cork, in June 2018, before transferring to the Abbey Theatre, Dublin. It was produced by Landmark Productions and the Everyman, in association with the Abbey Theatre.

'A genuinely heartbreaking, sickening and truthful examination of society's penchant for victim-blaming, its treatment of women and the concept of rape culture' - Guardian on Louise O'Neill's novel

'With a script by Meadhbh McHugh that is sharp and also very funny, Asking for It not only stays faithful to the novel, it goes further, raising it up to heaven and down to hell, too. It is worth the hype' - Irish Independent

'Powerful, provocative, hard-hitting, shocking... a sharply observed and at times wincingly true-to-life portrayal of a family and its disintegration... funny, infuriating and unbearably sad' - Irish Examiner

Auteur

Louise O'Neill is an Irish author who writes primarily for young adults. Her books include Only Ever Yours and Asking For It, which won Book of the Year at the Irish Book Awards.