Medicine & The Same: two plays

John Kane sits on a hospital trolley. Very shortly, a giant lobster, two women called Mary, a very old man and a jazz percussionist arrive. Then everything starts.

Enda Walsh’s Medicine is a dark and frequently absurdist play. Devastatingly funny and profoundly moving, it examines how, for decades, we have treated those we call ‘mentally ill’.

It was first produced by Landmark Productions and Galway International Arts Festival as part of the 2021 Edinburgh International Festival, prior to performances in Galway and New York. It was directed by Enda Walsh, with a cast including Clare Barrett, Aoife Duffin and Domhnall Gleeson, with drummer Sean Carpio.

This edition also includes Walsh’s play The Same, about two women who meet in a psychiatric institution. Published here for the first time, it was produced by Corcadorca in 2017, and won The Irish Times Irish Theatre Award for Best Play.

‘One of the most fiercely individual voices in the theatre today’ New York Times