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The article examines the theatre of the young Northern Ireland playwright, Gary Mitchell, and more particularly the plays concerned with the developments inside the Protestant paramilitary organisation, the Ulster Defence Association (UDA) since the 1994 ceasefires. It shows how some of the fundamental assumptions underpinning the peace process are reflected in Mitchell’s theatre. Emphasis in the political sphere on “talk,” insistence that “talk” should replace violence, the explicit link between “talk” and “progress” are rhetorical strategies looked at with the greatest suspicion by the characters in his plays. The article explores how Mitchell represents this hostility in his theatre and how he tries to use it to produce a form of talk that seeks to act as a more satisfactory agent of change.