Meet Íde Simpson, recent MFA Playwriting graduate
We caught up with Íde Simpson, a recent graduate (2025) of the MFA in Playwriting at The Lir Academy to hear her thoughts on the course and how it has supported her ongoing career.
Íde, how did you come to the programme at The Lir Academy?
I studied my undergraduate in Trinity College Dublin in Drama and English Literature. It was during COVID, so it was initially really a shell of what it should be. The people were amazing, the teachers too, but there was little we could do about the situation we were all in. By the time my third year came, COVID had started to wind down, and the restrictions weren't as bad in the UK as they were in Ireland, so I opted to do a study abroad programme and went to Goldsmiths where I truly had the best year ever. I did very little work, but I learned quite a lot - I think everyone needs to live in London for a minute to understand the breadth of humanity. I’m nosy and interested in people, so it was a really good place to be!
My fourth year of Trinity, when I came back after my Erasmus, was when I really started to actually enjoy it. In that fourth year, we did a capstone project. My friend Beth and I saw Dancing at Lughnasa at the National Theatre (UK), it was the best thing I'd ever seen. I'd read it in school, but I'd never seen it in my mind’s eye like that. Beth and I decided we should adapt it for our assessment. We were told we weren't allowed to do an adaptation, but we took the loose inspiration of Dancing at Lughnasa, and we wrote a play called Cailíní, which was performed at the Samuel Beckett Theatre in Trinity.
It did so well that we pitched it to the Lyric Theatre in Belfast, who said yes! In the middle of the final year of our degrees, we galvanised a whole team, brought the play to Belfast, submitted our final essays from the dressing room, and it was a life-changing experience! It ended up on the British Theatre Guide's Top 10 Northern Irish Shows of the Year.
Was playwriting always on the horizon for you?
When I was eighteen, a teacher in my school signed me up for a Fighting Words course, because she felt I could be good at writing a play. I hadn’t thought anything about that. Through that, I was mentored by the writers, Hilary Fannin, Una Kavanagh, Emily Dedakis, Rebecca Mairs and Karis Kelly. Karis has written a play called Consumed, which has won the Women's Prize for Playwriting, it is spell-binding. I had all these amazing women as my mentors in a safe space, it changed my life. I remember Hilary Fannin saying ‘nothing you ever write is wrong’.
Over the course of eight weeks, I wrote my first play and then an excerpt of it was shown in the Lyric Theatre in Belfast right before the COVID lockdown happened.I then decided that I needed to start taking it seriously because I loved it so much. But I'm an actor too, so my whole life has been a battle between my two personalities – before I applied to The Lir Academy, I got into Royal Central to study acting.
The fact that I could still live in Belfast and commute to do the course really helped my decision. When I spoke to Colm Carney (Academic Administrator), I realised how seriously The Lir Academy takes this programme and the admissions process, and how much freer it is than I had thought. On the day I arrived at The Lir Academy, I knew I’d made the utter right decision.
How has taking the course helped shape you and your creative process as a writer?
I think it was invaluable to be honest. I'd never finished every page in a notebook before and now I have this wealth of work that I can just draw upon at any time. The course also taught me to balance myself personally and professionally, all of which informed my final play. The course has changed me as a person and as a writer in innumerable ways, it supported my resilience. As a writer, there is constant excavation of self, constant looking back through difficult experiences to try and find the truth – but it was fulfilling – I've definitely grown as a writer and as a human. Graham Whybrow (Course Director) is a brilliant artists and champion of new work, he is really does care about each of us.
I was bored of doing playwriting classes where you kind of write something and then everyone sits around reading each other's work and critiquing it like we’re qualified to do that. I don't find that helpful at all, there's definitely a different approach to his lessons that's a lot more freeing. We were being set challenges, having to write outside of ourselves; writing situations, places that we’d never been in, and, trying to consider all of that. I feel like a little magpie now, I'm constantly looking for little snippets, like a little forager, looking for things that I can extrapolate for inspiration. It's made life a lot more exciting, because things that once seemed dreary or stale can be something.
Was there anything surprising about the course?
I never thought that writing could be so difficult. When you first start doing anything as a child, you never actually think about the mechanics of what you’re doing, question them. This was almost like teaching myself how to do something ‘properly’ and I struggled with that at first. But now, I've realised there's not really a way to ‘properly’ write, which is nice. Maybe there are ‘better’ ways to write, but, there's not a one-size-fits-all version of it, and that's what makes everybody's writing so exciting and different. You lean into those things that make you a different writer, a different person, all of your little quirks that make your voice unique. It was great to read so many plays as well, I loved that.
Would you recommend the course?
Absolutely, it definitely changed the trajectory of my life for the better. I have a full-length play now and that’s a good calling card to enter the industry with. For any writer, it's great to have that catalogue of work that you can draw upon if you see a callout for work for a particular scheme. It's so helpful to write something using everything that you've learned and to see it visualised. My final play was written for two characters in their 50s, watching these really established actors perform it was like watching people run a marathon or do some sort of acrobatic tricks. It was such a privilege to get to see that and be in a room with all of these people. Scripted (the end of year writing showcase) was sheer joy and it was such an honour to work with everyone. My course mates were amazing; there were just four of us and we were all really lucky to have each other.
What have you been up to since the course – just a few months ago?
My dissertation – a full-length play – had a reading in The Lyric in Belfast. I’ve also received a fellowship from a company called Theatre and Dance NI to support my development as an artist. The scheme is run by Steven Atkinson, who's a producer in The Royal Court, so I’m getting to network and meet a lot of really cool people. I’ve also just received a bursary from An Grianan Theatre to work and research in Donegal and have just wrapped shooting a short film as the lead actor. I also teach kids creative writing – it's really good to do something in my wheelhouse and have the opportunity to use and practice my skills.