New arrival Shaun Dunne is an old hand at the Abbey Theatre

Shaun Dunne made his acting debut at the Abbey aged 11. Now he is returning to the national theatre as a playwright, writes Padraic Killeen

SHAUN DUNNE’S new play at the Abbey Theatre marks the young Dubliner’s arrival at the top table of Irish theatre. But for Dunne himself it’s very much a ‘re-arrival’. It was at the Abbey that the Dubliner first acquired a love of drama, when as a child he participated in the national theatre’s outreach programme, leading to his being cast, aged 11, in the 2001 production of Jim Nolan’s Blackwater Angel.