Abstract

This play, Magpies, is my attempt at a post-pandemic farce. I borrow elements from traditional farce—like fast-paced dialogue, misunderstanding, improbable circumstances and stage directions that make sure that the characters constantly just miss seeing things that would give them important information about the people around them—to explore how lockdown has affected our ability to communicate with each other. Like a conventional farce this play is, essentially, a series of empty gestures and bad decisions that continue to pull the characters into ever more ridiculous and uncomfortable situations. That said, because this story comes out of the pandemic, all these elements are underpinned by deep loneliness and a certain self-destructive bent. Instead of being larger-than-life caricatures, the play’s characters have made themselves small; they are boxing themselves into stereotypes in order to feel safe. These characters are a little more reticent (still adjusting to being in the company of others). This play is also in conversation with naturalism and the domestic realism of the late 19th century. Each of these characters is contemplating freedom, domesticity and flight. The character of Maggie was in rehearsals for a production of Henrik Ibsen’s A Doll’s House before it was cancelled because of the pandemic. There are references throughout the play to A Doll’s House as well as to Anton Chekhov’s The Seagull.