Our capital city has suffered many unkind comparisons across the decades, but debutante playwright Gary Duggan is probably the first to hail it the new New York. No compliment is intended: in Dublin’s shabby juxtaposition of predatory capitalism and rank poverty Doyle sees parallels with the kill-or-be-killed New York of the 1980s.

“There’s so much wealth around at the moment yet there have never been so many people who are left out. That very much reminds me of how New York was 20 years ago,” he explains.
The moral abyss at the heart of the New Ireland is one of the uncomfortable realities the 26 year old grapples with in his first professionally-staged play, Monged, a flash of kinetic theatre that comes at you with the surreal fury of a mescaline rush.
“It’s about three guys on a night out together and the strange things that happen to them as the evening goes on. The story is very much drawn from my own experiences of going out in Dublin and all of the weird situations you find yourself in,” says Duggan.
Monged is a geographical as well as emotional journey: over the course of their bender, its three lead characters fetch up in some of Dublin’s forgotten and forbidding haunts. The intent, explains Duggan, is to peel back the city’s skin and probe the ugly bruises beneath the superficialities. One of the protagonists is a petty drug dealer and narcotic excess lends their adventures a surreal tinge.
“He thinks it’s really cool to be a drug dealer but he’s more concerned with the image than the reality,” says actor Rory Keenan of his character. “There are parallels there with the country we live in - a lot of people are obsessed with outward appearance.”
Though the Fishamble-produced Monged represents Duggan’s professional debut he isn’t a newcomer exactly. There have been forays into digital filmmaking and pop promos (he directed a video for singer-songwriter Gavin McCaffrey in Prague) and a spot at the Dublin Fringe. He is currently expanding a series of short theatrical sketches set in New York into his first novel.
“A lot of what I write is very autobiographical. I think my friends will certainly recognise some of themselves in Monged characters. It’s an attempt to write about the Dublin we all live in.”

Monged, directed by Jim Culleton, runs at The Project, Dublin until April 30.