Inside story

Paula Meehan has published four collections of poetry - and she has also written two plays for children and one, Mrs Sweeney, for adults. She has conducted writing workshops in prisons, including Mountjoy and Portlaoise, and feels a huge debt to women prisoners she has worked with over the years. Her way of discharging the debt is that of the creative writer - she has made a play about their situation, fictitious of course, but rooted in her experiences and observations. Cell is a searching look at life and death on the inside. In it, four women share a cell, three of whom are there for drug-related offences, and the fourth for murder. It's a microcosm of prison society with its tensions, fears and the humour that enables its people to survive - if they can. It's on at the City Arts Centre, Moss Street - see listings.