Ulster American takes place over the course of one evening, as Ulster-born playwright Ruth Davenport visits the London home of English theatre director Leigh Carver on the eve of rehearsals for her new play. Also present is Jay Conway, an Oscar-winning American film star newly arrived to headline the production. What begins as a professional, seemingly cordial meeting quickly fractures, as conversations about art, politics, national identity, and history escalate into personal confrontation, exposing clashing worldviews and unresolved tensions connected to the Northern Irish Troubles.

The play is written by David Ireland, whose work frequently examines power, masculinity, and political violence through confrontational dialogue. Ulster American premiered at the Traverse Theatre during the 2018 Edinburgh Festival Fringe, where it received both a Scotsman Fringe First Award and the Critics Award for Theatre in Scotland for Best New Play. The work was later revived in London in 2023 by Second Half Productions at Riverside Studios, featuring Woody Harrelson, Andy Serkis, and Louisa Harland.

Structured as a three-hander set largely within a single domestic space, the play uses escalating argument and shifting alliances to interrogate authorship, representation, and moral authority in contemporary theatre-making. Its focus on interpersonal conflict serves as a lens through which broader cultural and political contradictions are examined.