"Inisheer Delight"
"Inisheer Delight" is an absurdist four act spectacle play with live on stage actor-musicians.
A group of loosely knit friends arrive on the Aran island of Inisheer looking to glean wisdom from the humble life of its inhabitants. Through a cast of 17, and additional dancing couples, the play may be described as a cross between Waiting For Godot, Riverdance & Wit. It is a deep, personal exploration and excavation of people and nature whereby revealing the consequences of early life (developmental) trauma; a timely topic imbued by the timelessness of the absurdist style.
Scenic Elements: A rotating stage, a puddle jumper, a shipwreck, a breeches buoy zip-line, a pony and trap, a lighthouse, a bar, a souvenir shop, and a grassy sea-side hill.
Concept:
Inisheer Delight is a continuing story (in play form) of an episodic series written after the author, Catherine Taormina, was accepted into New York Theater Workshop's & Poetic Theater Productions' Veteran Voices Playwriting Seminar (2021). In the play Inisheer Delight, some of the characters from her 100 episode series "Paranormal Proportions", go on a work-study retreat to one of the Aran Islands. The author converted the scenes from her play into episodes 80-86 and resumed the episodic story. Paranormal Proportions is a series which can be described as conceptual injections of philosophy within optimized and magnified conversations and situations. It comprises various special effects, locations and visualizations, animating the author's signature style of warped confessionalistic thought, magical thinking, escapism, toxic hope, cognitive dissonance, and where one goes when enduring the unendurable. The fantasy world I live in exists only in my brain. I haven't yet been to Ireland or Inisheer but this play can perhaps take me there - along with a few others - as it may be a vehicle for tourism!
Author Bio:
Catherine Taormina is a performer, musician and writer. In her early 20s, she read from her book of poetry "Chalkboard With A Bad Eraser" at the then Barnes & Noble Astor Place and received the largest non-celebrity turnout as was reported to her by the store manager. Poetry from this book and other text was cited in Dr. Sharon Klayman Farber's book "When the Body is the Target: Pain, Self-Harm and Traumatic Attachment. The author continued to write poetry and produced another book, this one unpublished, "My Stakes Are Rare, Put Up Your Dukes, You Ain't In The Ring With No Porkchop" and then transitioned to songwriting. She has written a number of original songs and also melodies for Shakespeare's lyrics. She is a theater director with extensive behind-the-scenes theatrical stagehand/craft experience including stage management. She dabbles daily in fabric crafts, photography, film, film editing, chocolate and nature.
