Publishing 1 October 2026:

SIDE STAGE: THEATRE WRITING 1984-2025

By BEN BARNES

SIDE STAGE brings together more than four decades of theatre writing by the internationally acclaimed Irish theatre and opera director and artistic director BEN BARNES.

Gathering essays, interviews, book reviews, programme notes, prefaces and book chapters, this collection reveals the ideas, principles and artistic convictions that have shaped and animated the director’s career. Alongside these writings are a selection of Barnes’s mise en scène blueprints for opera productions, offering a rare glimpse into his creative process, collaborative methods and distinctive theatrical imagination.

Rich in insight and experience, Side Stage illuminates both the craft of directing and the realities of artistic leadership in contemporary theatre. Essential reading for theatre-makers, students and scholars, it is also an invaluable resource for anyone interested in how well regarded and thought out productions are conceived, developed and brought to life.

‘An insightful, accessible, marvellous book’

FRANK McGUINNESS

‘A quiet titan of Irish theatre in my time’

AIDAN MATHEWS