Part of Deirdre Kinahan's trilogy of landmark plays commemorating seven years of warfare in Ireland, Embargo focuses on a pivotal moment during the Irish War of Independence.
It is September 1920. Dockers and railmen are refusing to transport armed troops or handle any weapons arriving from Britain. Three characters are caught up in the whirl of historical events in a poetic, bloody and heroic tale of industrial action and civic resistance.
Embargo was first staged by Fishamble: The New Play Company, in association with Iarnród Éireann and Dublin Port Company, in October 2020, streamed live online from the Pumphouse in Dublin Port, as part of the Dublin Theatre Festival.
Deirdre Kinahan's Raging trilogy tells powerful stories drawing on a tumultuous period of conflict in Irish history, from the 1916 Easter Rising to the Civil War which began in 1922. Each of the three plays — Wild Sky, Embargo and Outrage — was first performed a century after the event which it depicts, and they were commissioned and performed by companies including Fishamble: The New Play Company, Meath County Council Arts Office, Dublin Port Company and Iarnród Éireann.
Together, they challenge the historical narrative, mixing true-life testimonies with powerful drama to create a theatrical hurricane of empathy, action and truth.
'Unashamedly humanistic… impressive layers of nuance' — Irish Times
