Bewley’s Cafe Theatre, Dublin, Previews Jan 9 Opens Jan 10-21, 1.10pm 8-12 (lunch 4) bewleyscafetheatre.com 086-8784001

“Where have all the writers gone?” goes a frequent lament in theatre, muted only slightly by a drift of young voices on our smaller stages. (A better question might be, “What are bigger theatres doing with all their commissions?”) But Bewley’s Cafe Theatre has long answered that question with one word: “Here”.

Working for the dependable lunchtime venue, Mark O’Halloran, Barry McKinley, Deirdre Kinahan, Peter Sheridan and Sebastian Barry have all proven that you can think big even when your stage is miniscule.

The first play of 2012 in Bewley's begins a season of new or recent Irish works, all of which turn their attention towards the past. Those Sick and Indigent, Alan O'Regan's quiet debut, is set in a present-day homeless shelter, where a social worker – assisted by a gregarious resident, Finbar "The Cad" Lyons – pieces together the history of a recently deceased man from the items left in his room.

The play owes its flavour, a few colourful turns of phrase and The Cad to the Dublin of Sean O'Casey, while its title reaches back to an 18th-century Dublin charity. Followed by Aidan Harney's new Rock Hudson drama, Hollywood Valahalla, and Love All, a comedy about the notorious 19th Century tennis star Vere St Leger Goold, new writing at Bewley's may have found a new imperative. Do look back.

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