Following its most recent production My Real Life by Eoin Colfer which played the Wexford Arts Centre before a national tour, Four Rivers has presented a new play, Jenny Instead by Wexford writer Eoghan Rua Finn.

Eoghan will be known to Four Rivers audiences for his Civil War drama, Amongst Men which was staged by the company in 2023.

In 2025, he wrote and directed Invitations at the National Opera House.

Eoghan Rua’s first play, Come Along the Road Until You Stop Dead, was selected by Billy Roche as the winner of a Wexford playwriting competition in 2014. It was subsequently produced by Newline Theatre and later reached the All-Ireland One-Act Drama Festival Final with Enniscorthy Drama Group, where he received an Adjudicator’s Prize for New Writing.

His previous work includes the radio drama Sons of Thunder for South East Radio, The Blackstairs Trilogy, and the full-length play Locomotive. In 2017, he received an Arts Council Theatre Bursary, and in 2020 he was selected for the Wexford Playwrights Studio, facilitated by Billy Roche and Ben Barnes.

Jenny Instead is set in present-day Dublin. Paddy, a recently returned emigrant, and Maria, a reclusive artist. The plan is simple- temporarily escape themselves. But when their guards come down and unexpected sparks fly their time together becomes more real than either was prepared for.

Can they face each other and themselves on a night neither will forget? And in the face of human complexity is there ever such a thing as a simple plan? Jenny Instead is an intimate examination of difficulty of connection and authenticity in the modern world.

The play was directed by Emma Finegan who has just finished a stint as an associate director at The Gate Theatre. It was designed by Liam Doona (A Handful of Stars and My Real Life) and lit by Ferdy Emmet. Costumes were by Wexford’s Jeni Roddy.

The play also featured award-winning actress Lauren O’Leary (Stage Debut Award for Little Gem off Broadway) and Kyle Hixon (Wednesday – Netflix and Ridley Scott’s The Last Jewel – Fox Searchlight)

“We are delighted to be staging Eoghan’s new play, Jenny Instead with a strong creative team led by Emma Finegan and two fine young actors,” said Four Rivers Artistic Director Ben Barnes.

“This will be the sixth new work from the South East that we have staged over the past four years and underlines our commitment to give voice to the stories and concerns of our audiences and writers”