Actress Stella Feehily started writing out of frustration with the lack of meaty roles. Now she is one of a new breed of Irish playwrights developing abroad, writes Brian O'Connell.

Tuesday night and the Royal Court is heaving. Standing five deep at the bar, wedged between Richard Wilson (aka Victor Meldrew) and a Jon Voight look-alike, Stella Feehily introduces herself, drops her coat unceremoniously and orders a beer.

The most talked-about Irish female playwright in a decade is also the most refreshingly down to earth, and downright likeable: "Did ye get good seats?", "You know you can take in plastic glasses", "You're much younger than I thought". Carlsberg don't do upcoming playwrights, but if they did, you'd figure Feehily would get a good look-in. A native of Bundoran, she is self-assured, warm and completely at ease with her adopted environment, buoyed no doubt by the affirmation that Duck, her first foray into stage writing, was no flash in the pan.

O Go My Man, her second full-length play, has just embarked on an English tour armed with a stack of positive reviews. A comic and cutting look at celebrity-chef, latte-fuelled Ireland, it is described by the Guardian's Michael Billington as a mix between Patrick Marber's Closer and Lewis Carroll, while the Times called it "refreshingly ambitious". Having spent 12 years as an actress in Dublin, Feehily (36), is taking success as a playwright in her stride, ultimately proving that with maturity comes the ability to accept deferred gratification.

Judging by the reaction at the curtain call in London, she has a long career ahead of her, and many more plaudits to come. Her role as Sorcha Byrne, the teacher who had an affair with a student in Fair City, seems a lifetime away now, and yet in reality it's not all that long ago.

The morning after the performance, we arrange to meet at a grand English tearoom next to Victoria Station. Feehily has spent the day working on her next commission, part of the Royal Courts 50th celebrations. Had success come earlier in her career, perhaps Feehily would have been less assured; as it is, it's now all about building on what she's achieved and keeping it going.

"If success had come along 10 years ago, I would have gone off the rails, as I wasn't mature enough. I care less now, and think more about longevity. Before, the idea of success meant an awful lot more. I think that's why I moved away from acting, as I don't need the validation any more. I need the work and I want to work. Obviously it would be great to be the hot new thing at 26 rather than 36, and I would suggest to anyone thinking about a writing career to start when you're young. Yet I am glad it is happening to me now."

WHILE THE DESIRE had always been there, it was really only when Feehily exhausted the Irish acting scene that writing embraced her fully.

"I discovered that unless you're incredibly lucky, you're not going to be satisfied, either emotionally or intellectually, as an actress in Ireland. Some actresses in Dublin have wonderful careers, like Andrea Irvine and Cathy Belton. Girls like that are doing excellent work with great directors. But that doesn't happen for everyone and I realised my opportunities for working with brilliant directors were only coming once every five years. I thought to myself, 'I can't live like this'; most of the work I was doing bored the pants off me. Acting can be quite a boring profession unless you're working with great classic plays and stimulated by good directors."

You get the sense that Feehily had had her fill with the acting life. In O Go My Man (an anagram of the word monogamy), one of the central female characters - Sarah - is a struggling thirty-something actress reduced to a hip-hop version of Alice in Wonderland to get by. When confronted with a particularly obnoxious casting director, she retorts, "Look, you asswipe. I've had a number of four-star reviews in my time. I have come this close to being in a film with Kevin Spacey. I'm trying to give these shitting lines some dignity here."

Enough said.

Perhaps, given her personal experience, it's no coincidence then that Feehily's writing contains strong female roles. Was there a conscious decision to address the gender imbalance apparent in Irish theatre?

"To be honest I didn't think: I'm gonna write loads of parts for women. I just write what I want to. It was only when we were casting this play that the casting director said, 'oh five women in your play - great', and I thought, oh my God, there are five women in the play. In Duck, of course, there were two substantial parts for women, but I actually really like writing for men as well.

"It's true to say though that the writing started out of frustration with the lack of meaty roles. But it wasn't a calculated thing. I wrote a play, which has never been performed, and I sent it to the National Theatre and to Out Of Joint Theatre Company and I got back two very encouraging responses. This was in 2001, and Out of Joint told me that the director Max Stafford-Clark was coming to Ireland to do Hinterland, and he wanted to know if I had anything else written. I had about eight scenes of Duck written at that stage which I gave to him, and he absolutely loved it, and I think it was just one of those lucky things."

While luck may have played its part with Duck, it had a minor role in Feehily's current stage success. First commissioned by Out of Joint and later picked up by Ben Barnes at the Abbey, O Go My Man was initially intended to premiere in Ireland, yet when the Abbey found itself in financial turmoil, it couldn't afford the modestly staged comic drama. The Royal Court wasted little time in offering the play a run, and a UK tour quickly followed, with the Everyman in Cork securing the only Irish dates next month.

"It was all set to go on at the Abbey in March but the deal fell through, something to do with the losses which were discovered. Fiach Mac Conghail said 'no we can't do it - it's too expensive'. It was all signed, sealed and delivered to go ahead, which was frustrating."

Feehily's experience highlights a malaise at the core of Irish theatre. New Irish playwrights have little opportunity to develop their work at home, with few theatres in a financial position to harbour new writing and a select few companies able to sustain or develop it. It's little surprise then that venues such as the Royal Court or Soho Theatre and companies such as Plaines Plough and Out of Joint have had such a pivotal role in developing a new breed of Irish writers abroad.

For her part, Feehily has no plans to return home anytime soon. "I've given up my flat in Dublin and obviously I miss it, as my sister and a lot of my friends still live there, but really and truly my career is here. I have a couple of commissions coming from English companies and my life is here now. I love the theatre scene here - it's so diverse. I lived in Ireland all my life, so it was time to move on."

THE MOMENT OF realisation came only last month, on opening night, as the "difficult second play" began its performing life. In tandem, Feehily's own life took a dramatic yet definite new direction.

"Opening night was uproarious. I couldn't hear half the play, people were laughing so much. Knowing how theatre works, I remember thinking, this could go either way - it could be great or it could be awful. Just because it is causing a reaction doesn't mean the critics are going to buy it or like it. I was sitting in the circle, and I remember thinking, whatever way this goes, I'm really proud of this piece and it means an awful lot to me. I said exactly what I wanted to say: if people get it they get it, if not, it's a real shame but at least it's out there. I think that was the first moment I thought, I am writer and this is my career."

O Go My Man tours to: Cambridge Arts Theatre until Feb 18, then Nuffield Theatre, Southampton, 21-25 Feb; The Rep, Birmingham, Feb 28-Mar 4; Everyman Palace, Cork, Mar 7-11; Gardner Arts Centre, Brighton Mar 14/15; Trinity, Tunbridge Wells, Mar 17/18; Yvonne Arnaud Theatre, Guildford, Mar 21-25; Octagon Theatre, Bolton, Mar 28-Apr 1. For details see www.outofjoint.co.uk