Before You Say Anything (NHB Modern Plays)

Imagine no one loves you and you have to leave home with nothing. Where would you go? Would you feel free? Are you free at all if your 'choices' hurt? A play that questions how everyone can be safe at the same time, Before You Say Anything is a time-travelling set of interweaving stories exploring injustice, freedom, and bravery. Created by Carys D. Coburn with MALAPROP Theatre, it was first staged at the 2020 Dublin Fringe Festival. MALAPROP Theatre is an award-winning collective of Irish theatremakers, who seek to challenge, delight and speak to the world we live in (even when imagining different ones). 'Subtle, timely and beautifully paced... riveting' - Irish Times 'Reminiscent of early Carly Churchill... This is thinking theatre at its best' - Irish Independent

Carys D. Coburn (they/them) is a writer and theatre maker based in Dublin. Their plays include Boys and Girls (Dublin Fringe Festival 2013, winner of Best New Writing Award, nominated for the Stewart Parker Trust Award); Drawing Crosses on a Dusty Windowpane (Dublin Fringe 2015); Citysong (winner of the Verity Bargate Award; Abbey Theatre Dublin and Soho Theatre London 2019); Briseis after the Black and Blackcatfishmusketeer (Dublin Fringe 2016); and This is a Room (Dublin Theatre Festival 2017). They are a collaborating writer with MALAPROP Theatre, with whom they have co-written JERICHO (Bewleys Cafe Theatre, 2017), Everything Not Saved (Dublin Fringe, 2017), Before You Say Anything (Dublin Fringe, 2020), Where Sat the Lovers (Dublin Fringe, 2021) and HOTHOUSE (Dublin Fringe, 2023). Carys D. Coburn was formerly known as Dylan Coburn Gray.