Conversations on a Homecoming remains one of Murphy's most accessible plays, written in a similar supposedly naturalistic style as his earlier masterpiece A Whistle In the Dark.
Hugely well received on its original production which transferred to London after its Irish debut, it has been performed in Belfast and revived at the Abbey since.
Brilliantly written, caustic and bleak in places but possessed of a suppressed romanticism and idealism struggling to emerge it evokes the atmosphere of the small-town Irish pub with its apparent bonhomie disguising deep-seated pain and tensions with consummate skill.
As with all of Murphy's plays there is immense darkness and moments of nihilism in the writing but ultimately there is an optimism and belief in the human spirit which transcends the suffering of the characters.
In the original production the actors drank real alcohol on stage, the process of buying of rounds, consuming drink and going to the toilet being carefully plotted into the action.