The sheer magnitude and power contained within the seas and oceans of this world have long been a source of great inspiration for writers. For Kenneth Hickey, it was the long stretches at sea while serving in the navy that ultimately provided the catalyst for his eventual move into the world of literature.

The time spent at sea obviously still holds water (no pun intended) with the gifted Cork writer who this week premiers his latest work, Night Swimming, an introspective tale of love, life, the fragility of relationships, the cause and effect of violence and the seemingly unstoppable momentum of fate itself.

"Night Swimming had an interesting development," Kenneth told the Cork Independent ahead of the shows run at the Cork Arts Theatre. "I started to write it during the production of my last play Autopsy. The inspiration came from several tragic incidents surrounding violence within close knit families in contemporary small town Ireland. Without giving too much away about the lot…there is a twist…the play examines one relationship which has ended in violence. The two protagonists over the course of a night relive their relationship from when they meet right through to the end.

Interestingly the initial plan for the play was to workshop it and then submit it to established theatre companies. It was during this process that Kate McSwiney O'Rourke, who is playing Lorna, suggested that this work was something we might produce ourselves. It was this suggestion that put the production by Too Highbrow and Clinic Media, Eoin's Company, into place.

Eoin Ó hAnnracháin, who featured during the New Directors Festival in The Granary Theatre in 2007, is on also on hand, adding further home-spun credibility to the production, as well as allowing Kenneth to gain some added perspective. "Eoin was someone who Kate had worked with and also someone I was aware of in the Cork theatre scene. I had seen his production of Howie The Rookie as part of the New Directors Festival in The Granary theatre 2007 which received very good reviews.

"Getting a director involved was important for me as with Too Highbrow's last production I was writer, producer and director which was not ideal. I feel it is important as a developing playwright to hand my work over to a director and allow them complete creative control to develop their own artistic vision. Eoin has been excellent not only as a director but also by using his contacts within Cork theatre to bring other talented individuals into the project including James Browne as Jason."

The aforementioned actors threading the boards on Night Swimming are among the most highly regarded young practitioners of the art in Cork at present with acting credits in the movie Strength and Honour as well as highly regarded productions 4.48 Psychosis, Lifeboat, Othello and Vanity, Vapours & Dizzy Debutantes. Kenneth's own personal CV is not to be sniffed at either. His work, which spans poetry, prose, short stores, films and theatre have been published (and produced) in Ireland, England, France and the USA. His talents were recognized when he won the Eamon Keane Full Length Play Award in 2005, an award he was also short listed for in 2007.

"Writing is something I began at an early age, mainly poetry, which developed particularly in secondary school. Being at sea with the navy involved a lot of time to think and write more poetry. Having left the navy I felt it was important to seriously develop as a writer and while holding down the day job moved onto writing prose as well as plays. With regard to influences I am usually drawn to writers who try to expand and take an inventive approach to their chosen medium be that Iain Banks with his novels, David Lynch in film or particularly Beckett and Pinter in theatre.