Book Review: Prestige Drama
Prestige Drama by Séamas O'Reilly will be released in the United States on May 5, 2026.
As soon as I read the first few pages, I knew this book was special. Prestige Drama is a hilarious, heartfelt book about tragedy and comedy, past and present, set in Northern Ireland as a screenwriter struggles to create a “prestige drama,” the main actress goes missing and of course, everyone in town has an opinion.
The novel’s voice is strong and distinctive, with Northern Irish dialect and turns of phrase. The voices are unique in different chapters. Each chapter is from a different character’s perspective, except there are recurring chapters throughout from Diarmuid the screenwriter’s perspective. There is so much social satire, funny critique of characters and events, and a slightly gossipy tone that mostly runs on kindness, rather than meanness.
I could not stop laughing out loud during Dympna’s chapter. She is a mom of one of the young actors, who is auditioning for the TV show, Patricia.
Okay, so the plot. Diarmuid is a screenwriter who went to London to make it big in playwriting, but it didn’t pan out. Yet then he sells his screenplay of a “prestige drama” about the Troubles. Filming is all set to start soon in Derry, and a high-profile American actress, well-known for crime dramas, is attached to the project. She arrives in town unexpectedly to get a feel for the place and work on her accent, which needs major work.
Everyone in town wants a part, but Diarmuid seems to have writer’s block, and then the lead actress has gone missing…uh-oh…Meanwhile everyone and their brother is trying to audition, get a part in the show, consult, or something.
If you like the dark sense of humor and zany family dynamics of Derry Girls, this book is for you. The book is set in Derry, but the time is set in present day (unlike Derry Girls, which is set during the end of the Troubles in Northern Ireland). Prestige Drama, in my opinion, has a similar tone to the show Bodkin, also set in Ireland, which has a murder mystery, a podcast, and absurd comedy along with a cast of “quirky” townspeople.
I feel like the author has seen all of these TV shows and films and went off to write a very hilarious book. With all the laughs, there are serious themes about how to reckon with a history of violence, who is left behind after death and war, and how different characters deal with grief, loss, and the fallout from the Troubles. With all of the distinctive characters, you can see they are people who are not going to let the past define them.
Throughout the book, Diarmuid’s TV show about the Troubles is described as a “lavish prestige drama,” and fun is poked at the Brits and American producers and showrunners for their love of adapting Irish books or making films and movies set during The Troubles (think Say Nothing and Derry Girls).
This book is 192 pages, and it flew by for me. Genre-wise, it leans more toward a literary mystery as far as the pacing and voice, not a true thriller or murder mystery, with the social satire and character studies. And I do believe there is a very good chance Prestige Drama will be snapped up by producers and made into a comedy and drama. Not that that’s the be all and end all for the life of a book, becoming IP, but I think the irony would be funny, and I would watch it, for sure.
Thank you to Grand Central Publishing and Cardinal and NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.
