Cormac McCarthy’s drama, which is receiving its Irish premiere as part of the Festival, is an intense work with powerful performances from actors Austin Pendleton and Freeman Coffey.

Steppenwolf’s production is an exploration of why one man might want to kill himself while another, a total stranger, might try to give the failed suicide victim new hope.

Set in a gritty apartment in a New York ghetto, the play ranges from the comic to the tragic as the two men compare and argue over their different world views.

‘The professor’ who wishes to die by suicide is convinced that life is futile and not just as it relates to himself, but for humanity at large. His saviour, an ex con and a preacher, passionately attempts to persuade ‘the Professor’ of God’s love and common humanity in a bid to prevent him from repeating his attempt to jump in front of a train owned by the Sunset Limited.