FOR HOW JANELLE MONÁE ONCE MADE ME FEEL by Julia Marks #TinyPlayChallenge

Keep your creativity flowing with Fishamble's #TinyPlayChallenge
In these challenging times, Fishamble - along with many of our colleagues in the wider Irish artistic community - is working hard to keep imaginations lively, communities engaged - and most of all offer people the opportunity of creative expression. We asked our audiences: Would you welcome the challenge of exploring your thoughts and feelings through drama? Do you have a dramatic story that you feel the urge to work out for yourself, and maybe share with your fellow citizens?
​Below is one of the chosen plays from our weekly submissions.​



Three women (any age) are playing with Barbies, surrounded by
accessories.

MOLLY
We are young and living in our Dream House together

SAM
With our rich husbands who we are in love with

ADDY
Except for my husband, who died tragically

SAM
You cried for days

MOLLY
We are happy with our careers

ADDY
We are successes!

MOLLY
Happy with things!

SAM
Dishwasher/

ADDY
pool/

SAM
private jet/

MOLLY
Pink/ pink/ pink
until lunch.

ADDY
Three meals a day for forever is a harsh sentence

MOLLY
The first time I ordered Domino’s on my own--
Pizza/

SAM
breadsticks/

ADDY
cinnamon twists--

MOLLY
I wept because it felt like self-sufficiency

SAM
Indepence

ADDY
Because we’d talked so much about freedom and this was my way of understanding what that
meant

MOLLY
But also because it felt like a form of leaving.

SAM
And after lunch?

MOLLY
The days are coming as fast as they always did

SAM
Lip Smackers Tropical Fever/ Temporary pink hair streak

ADDY
Cell phone charm/ iPod case

MOLLY
We want and want, the internet is our dream house

SAM
Beauty butt mask/jade face roller/ vitamin pack

ADDY
Poetry collection/online yoga subscription/ eco-friendly toothbrush

MOLLY
I want and want,
I am struggling to keep up with all the THINGS,
I am getting better and better!

SAM
Or maybe fuller and fuller!

ADDY
My unpacked suitcase is expanding and I am already thinking of the day when I will pack my
things again
And be unhappy elsewhere

MOLLY
I send the same sad texts to the same two people who still make me feel better than
Vintage earrings from Ebay ever did,

SAM
I rediscover a facebook photo from 2013,
(life is long, isn’t it)

ADDY
I reveal to my public the album that helped me discover hip hop,
of course no one cares like I do.

MOLLY
I hold tight to the things I have created to be truths

ADDY
I love Kanye

SAM
I don’t eat meat,

MOLLY
I dare to call myself artist from a young age and never recover.
No one ever looks at me and says “you’ve changed”,
So I say it to myself in fits of imagined fatness or glow.

ADDY
I love and love and love
Shitty teen romances and girlpop on repeat,

SAM
Two weeks of yoga that don’t save my soul,

MOLLY
Two years of dyed hair to say
I CANNOT CONTINUE TO BE THE PERSON I HAVE ALWAYS BEEN

SAM
A crate of cleaning products and do we have to keep doing this?
Will I always, always be consuming?

MOLLY
But Kesha is back without her dollar sign,

SAM
The Dixie Chicks are on the Top Charts again,
Emerging from their pre-Spotify glory days
singing about psychological manipulation,

ADDY
And I am asking and asking if anyone has checked up on Trippie, on Frank, on Kendrick,
To let him know we ARE praying for him
To let him know his music is how we pray now,
We are joyful and singing together,
We have no right.

MOLLY
The rappers are driving themselves to extinction

ADDY
Soon we will be of the age where all our idols are dead

MOLLY
But I have my 70 pack of Jaffa cakes coming in the mail

ADDY
My case of wine

SAM
My beetroot serum.

MOLLY
The impermanence of my Self and the dreadful permanence of every day.
But we are young and your names are still on my phone screen

SAM
Green dots by your names

ADDY
A reassurance

MOLLY
You are still tethered to the Earth
Nothing is lost



Julia Marks is an actor and theatre-maker originally from South Carolina. She graduated from the Gaiety School of Acting in 2019, and previously received a BA in Theatre from the College of Charleston. She is a founding member of iii States Collective, a producing company focused on challenging theatrical form and expectations. They recently staged their first original work, Cove Creek Boys and Summer Girls, at the Scene and Heard Festival 2020, which was her professional writing and acting debut. You can find her on Instagram at @iiistates or @theconfessionrooms.

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