Maggie is the girl whose life you love to hate, as she sifts effortlessly through South America on the back of her successful travel blog with thousands of adoring online friends.
...EXCEPT for the fact that it’s 2023 and Maggie is actually still in her bedroom since 2020 when she developed agoraphobia during lockdown.
Photo by Simon Curran.
Surviving on Tesco home delivery, she has her family and friends fooled into believing she is living her best global life, while in reality she runs a fake blog from the green screen in her bedroom.
You see, Maggie is a superhero. As well as traveling the world without leaving the house, she spends her days keeping everyone alive by flicking the light switch on and off three times whenever she leaves a room. Rhyming her words keeps everything evil on the outside where it belongs, and when her obsessive anxious thoughts get too loud she knows she's safe as long as there's a big cold glass of milk to hand.
Photos by Simon Curran.
But tonight, when the power goes and the only world she exists in disappears, an interrupted Maggie must weather her own existential storm. Oh and she's ran out of milk.
Panic.
"Back out? Back out? Not yet... not now!"
Poster photography by Simon Curran. Design by Bold Lip.
CREATIVE TEAM
Jamie Feehily - Lighting Designer/Technician.
Jamie is a freelance lighting designer and technician based in Cork City. He also serves as technical manager for the Cork Arts Theatre. Throughout the past decade he has worked extensively in theatre’s through out Cork and nationwide. As a designer, he has designed for theatre and dance. Jamie is technical manager and designer for Cork based Wandering Star Theatre Company. His design credits include; As Some Tall Cliff (Marion Wyatt, DMD Productions), Adult Child/ Dead Child (Katrina Foley, Wandering Star), Mind That Tis Me Brother (Johnny Hanrahan, The Gaze Presents), The Hairdresser’s Calendar (Jack Healy, Theatre Makers), The Regina Monologues (Mary Curtin, Empire Line), PRIMAL (Shaun O’Connor, Cork Arts Theatre), A Thousand Moments of Extraordinary Pleasure (Tom Kibbe, BAMM Productions), Shawlies (Marion Wyatt, CreativeCollectiveCork) Lex Talionis (A Tale of Vengeance & Feathers) (Katrina Foley, Wandering Star), After You Get What You Want (Emily Hutt, Wandering Star), Debris (Katrina Foley, Wandering Star) Suessical The Musical (Ciaran Bermingham, Firkin Crane), Love, Peace and Robbery (Donal Gallagher, Cork Arts Theatre), Boys (Louise Barry, Cork Arts Theatre)
Jamie's work can be seen online at www.jamiefeehilydesign.com
Photography by Simon Curran, and Celeste Burdon.
Sound Design by BOLD LIP.
This play was directed & produced by writer/performer Jessica Courtney Leen under her production company BOLD LIP.
Jessica is a professionally trained actor from Cork, with Kerry roots. She trained at The Gaiety School of Acting in Dublin and was mentored by Screenwriter & Author Stefanie Preissner (Can’t Cope Won’t Cope). Jessica has been writing and creating her own work since graduating in 2017. Her debut play ‘Two Of Clubs’ ran for two weeks at Theatre Upstairs, Dublin in December 2017 and went on to play at the 2018 Listowel Writers Week, and Cork Arts Theatre for the Cork Jazz Festival 2018. Her second play ‘Waiting For Wifi’ was part of CorcaDorca’s SHOW 2019 at the Triskel Development Centre, and was commissioned to debut at the 2020 Cork Midsummer Festival. Jessica has also trained with Theatre Lovett, as well as with Raymond Keane in Clowning.
Jessica wrote, directed, produced and starred in her debut short film ‘Bronagh’ in 2020 which she shot in London and went into post-production with remotely in Ireland. Bronagh has played at 20 festivals internationally, including prestigious the Irish Film Festivals; Cork International Film Festival; Kerry International Film Festival, and Foyle Film Festival. The debut film has won four awards; Best First Time Female Director, Best Narrative Short, Best Short Film, and Best Editing. Jessica’s second short film, Not My Sister, supported by Cork City Arts Council, is being produced in 2021. Her most recent TV acting role was ‘Cassie’s Mum’ in the BBC Dublin Murders. In 2020 Jessica also wrote, directed and produced four concept music videos in 2020 for Irish artists Emma Langford, Rowan and James Or. She has just graduated with a first class honours Master’s Degree in Screenwriting for Film & Television at The National Film School (IADT).
A special mention to Jimmy Moore & Donal McNinch for their creative input as stage manager and sound operators whilst this piece was a work in development at the TDC SHOW 2019 with Corcadorca. Thank you also to Corcadorca for giving me the space for creative development and the opportunity to perform the beginnings of this show for an audience in December 2019. Thank you also to Smock Alley Scene & Heard 2018 where I first explored the concept of this show.
A word from the writer/performer;
Though a hat tip to my love for Beckettian worlds, the inspiration for Waiting For Wifi came from the desire to play on stage. Growing up inspired by the physical comedy and emotional depth of Robin Williams and Jim Carrey, I continue to struggle to find characters that allow me - a woman on a stage - to be free; raw, unsexed, metamorphic and layered. Maggie is the first character I've ever embodied and had the opportunity to truly lose myself in. I think we can often forget how much more there is to us, as beings. We're more than the words that come out of our mouths and the different masks we wear for the world; for different people. We're a whole inner dialogue. We're secret worlds that other people never get to see. Maggie is someone on the cusp of discovering that the faces we wear to fit in on the outside world, can often come at the cost of losing ourselves on the inside.
I hope you enjoy this piece of absurd physical theatre, and I hope - after a long, exhausting, and often lonely year - you get to have a moment of laughter in this theatre, and a moment for you, before it's time to walk out the door.
Jess x
Photo by Celeste Burdon.
THANK YOU'S
Thanks to everyone at The Cork Arts Theatre for supporting this play and for giving it the space to come to life, in particular Dolores Mannion. Thanks to Lorraine Maye of the Cork Midsummer Festival who originally programmed this show to debut before a global pandemic unfortunately took hold - thank you Lorraine for your constant support and encouragement, as an independent female artist in the city I am so grateful for your belief in my work. Thank you to Donal Courtney my Manifesto tutor during my time at The Gaiety who nurtured my passion to create my own work. Thank you to Conor & Elmarie at 96FM for (quite literally) shouting from the rooftops about the work I create - it is so appreciated.
A huge and heartfelt thank you to Eamonn Kearney & everyone at The Maryborough Hotel in Douglas. Thank you for giving an independent artist the space to work, breathe, and rehearse. The hospitality and entertainment industry have a special bond and understanding, especially after the last long year and a half waiting in the wings - thank you for coming through and supporting the arts so kindly and selflessly, and with so much genuine encouragement. It won't be forgotten.
A special mention also to Derry O'Callaghan of East Village Douglas, Soho & Paddy The Farmers, and to Louise & Dave of Eco Restaurant Douglas. Thank you for supporting my next project, which we begin shooting in November. It truly does take a village.
The biggest thank you of all to my family, partner and friends for the encouragement & constant support.x