Daisy Chain

Only the innocent need to be redeemed ... the rest just need therapy ‘That’s the trouble with people; as a race, we’ve never learned to distinguish between punishment and consequence. In the dark and middle ages, we thought everything was a punishment from God. In this enlightened time, we see everything that affects others as having an explicable cause and an inevitable effect; but we still see everything that affects us personally as a punishment from God – or whatever metaphysical construct we’ve chosen to accept. Why me?; what about me?; and just plain me! are the catch-cries of modern life. Somehow, I think the observation, ‘There but for the grace of God go I” is somehow much more moving and reflective than “Thank fuck it wasn’t me!” Don’t you agree? We’ve not progressed in 700 years; we’ve just narrowed the focus of our enlightenment.’ Daisy Chain, Act I Pain, punishment and consequence; hope, love and death; notions of Hell and the difficulty of just getting life right, are all thrown into the pot. In the tradition of drama that challenges, Daisy Chain confronts our ideas and presents new perspectives for our scrutiny – never forgetting that humour is the best sugar for a intellectually challenging pill. In a re-telling of the Orpheus and Eurydice legend, a young couple are separated while on a picnic. The young man’s search for his missing friend leads him to a small, isolated village where nothing is quite what it seems to be. Or, then again, maybe it is. ‘This is a very unusual village. Nothing makes sense.’ ‘There is more to us than meets the senses.’ Daisy Chain Act II Structured in three acts around a cast of ten characters, the play draws on farce, comedy of manners, drawing room drama and even juggling. It yields up its fruit most easily in a traditional proscenium-arch style production, though its concentration on pace and language, and its Absurdist debt, make it suitable for almost any style of production. ‘That would be trite, Toby. I prefer to say that we choose our own eternal therapy. ‘You said it wasn’t forever!’ ‘Yes, but ‘eternal therapy’ has a slightly more poetic ring to it which pleases me. Between you and me, Toby, I couldn’t think up most of the things people choose. But that’s for the best. Only they know what’s appropriate. And punishment that doesn’t fit the crime is just pain.’ Daisy Chain Act III