"Siren Song" is a wickedly funny dark comedy that opens with perhaps the most ineffective suicide attempt in theatrical history - Finn, a melodramatic failed poet, standing on a table with his head in a noose while being constantly interrupted by an ice cream van playing "Yankee Doodle Dandy." His partner Mia, a successful artist, responds not with horror but by calmly offering him tea and biscuits, then critiquing his technique while eating her ice cream cone.
The comic tension escalates with the arrival of Tilly, a wannabe femme fatale whose attempts at seduction are undermined by Mia's sardonic commentary. The play becomes a deliciously twisted love triangle, featuring Finn's hilariously awful poetry (sample gem: "Both eyes so blue, a dreamlike vista, hypnotic hue like the Goddess Vesta, a union of love in an eternal SIESTA!"), Mia's expertly timed put-downs, and Tilly's increasingly unhinged attempts to take over the studio.
The farcical elements reach their peak when Finn and Mia stage her "death," leading to scenes where Finn attempts to act grief-stricken while Tilly, thinking she's won, reveals her true colors in increasingly absurd ways. Meanwhile, Mia keeps popping up for ice cream breaks, turning what should be a noir thriller into a comedy of errors.
The play masterfully balances its darker themes with laugh-out-loud moments, from Finn's sudden poetic "ejaculations" (much to everyone's dismay) to Mia's running commentary on his leather pants. Even in its serious moments, the script maintains its wit, culminating in a finale where Finn can't stop spouting terrible poetry even as Mia begs him to "Stop the fucking poetry!"
It's a sharp satire of artistic pretension, relationship dynamics, and the lengths people will go to for recognition, all wrapped in a package of delightfully dark humor and clever wordplay.
"Finn and Tilly" is a meta-theatrical comedy that opens with a couple watching an avant-garde play. Finn, a pretentious theatre enthusiast, is thoroughly impressed by the performance, while his partner Tilly finds it boring and incomprehensible. Their post-show debate reveals their contrasting personalities – Finn's intellectual posturing versus Tilly's down-to-earth pragmatism.
The play takes a surreal turn when Tilly notices they have an actual audience watching them, breaking the fourth wall. As they struggle with this reality-bending revelation, they're visited by an eccentric Tramp in distinctive clothing who is searching for two "gentlemen" from another play. In a delightful twist of theatrical absurdity, it becomes clear that the Tramp has wandered into the wrong production entirely. The piece ends with Tilly making a clever announcement to the audience that inverts the premise of the classic play they had just watched.
The work functions both as a comedy about theatrical pretension and a meta-commentary on the nature of theatre itself. It playfully explores themes of reality versus performance, intellectual posturing, and the boundaries between audience and performers.
"Burning Bridges": A synopsis
In an isolated coastal hovel in contemporary Ireland, siblings Maggie (60s) and Jack (60s) live as recluses. Their routine is disrupted when a young couple, Kitty and Luke, seek shelter after their boat crashes during a storm. Luke, an arrogant rugby player, attempts to scale the treacherous cliff to seek help, despite warnings about its dangers. Before his attempt, we learn through Jack that he and Maggie were banished to this place in their childhood after Jack was caught playing "nurse" and kissing his friend Tommy - an incident that led to their father and a priest casting them out to sea.
While Luke makes his ill-fated climb, Maggie and Kitty bond over whiskey and stories, revealing Kitty's manipulative nature in stealing Luke from his previous partner. Luke eventually falls to his death attempting to scale "No-No Ridge." Rather than being devastated, Kitty becomes integrated into the siblings' isolated world. Maggie sees an opportunity to gain an heir for Jack, and despite initial resistance, Kitty eventually attempts to escape but is injured in the process.
Months later, Kitty has fully embraced her new life with Maggie and Jack, having given birth to a baby boy. When new shipwreck survivors come knocking, instead of helping them as she was once helped, Kitty rejects them - symbolizing her complete transformation and acceptance of her new family and their way of life.
The play is a dark comedy that explores themes of social isolation, sexuality, family bonds, and the transformative power of acceptance, however unconventional it may be.
“Fitz and the Fall”
"Fitz and the Fall" is a dark comedy stage play that takes place in a graveyard. The story begins when Fitz falls into an open grave while accompanying his wife Queenie to visit her father's grave. He's injured, claiming to have broken his leg and to be bleeding heavily. Rather than immediately helping him, Queenie uses this opportunity to air her grievances about their troubled marriage, even having a one-sided conversation with her deceased father about Fitz being a "moron."
The situation becomes more dire when water begins seeping into the grave due to a spring tide. A gravedigger named Mort appears, and while he offers Fitz some whiskey for the pain, he seems in no hurry to help, noting he has only minutes left on his shift. Queenie becomes instantly attracted to Mort, flirting with him aggressively while her husband's situation grows more desperate.
The play reaches its climax when Fitz announces he's finally floating to the top, much to Queenie's horror. In the final moment, Mort's parting words "till death do us part" and a knowing wink suggest a possible conspiracy between him and Queenie, implying that the entire scenario might have been orchestrated to dispose of Fitz.
The play is a dark exploration of a failed marriage, revenge, and dark humor, leaving audiences to wonder whether Fitz's fall was truly an accident or part of a calculated plan.
