Trad

A fable about tradition in a mad place, "Trad" is the hilarious tale of the very old Thomas and his even more ancient 'da'. When Thomas reveals that he once fathered a son in a long-ago fling, the pair set off across the Irish countryside to seek the unknown child, with nothing more than a hobble and a limp to help them. A surreal comedy from former comedian Mark Doherty, and a five-star hit at the 2005 Edinburgh Festival, "Trad" presents a deeply funny journey of discovery, fuelled by a past that's just as bizarre as the present. It opens at the Bush Theatre, London in April 2006.

Mark Doherty has worked extensively as an actor and as a stand-up comedian, besides writing for radio and television. His radio credits include A Hundred and Something, Stand-up Sketches and The Bees of Manulla for RTE, and The O' Show for BBC Radio 4. For television he has written The Stand Up Show, Back to the Future and Time Trumpet for BBC TV, and the six-part comedy series Couched for RTE. Trad, his first play, premiered at the Galway Arts Festival in 2004 and went on to Dublin, Adelaide, London and the Edinburgh Festival where it won a Fringe First Award. It also received the 2004 BBC Radio Drama Award from the Stewart Parker Trust. In 2006, Mark received the Tiernan MacBride International Screenwriting Award for his first screenplay, A Film with Me in It, in which he acted alongside David O'Doherty, Dylan Moran and Amy Huberman.