Spiced-up sex lives under spotlight in new comedy

Arts Week with Judy Murphy

A comic exploration into the sexual behaviour of Irish couples will be staged at the Town Hall Theatre in Galway on Monday, February 17.

Jezebel, a production from Rough Magic Theatre Company, was written by Mark Cantan, who was inspired by a statistic he read claiming that 15 per cent of Irish people had been involved in a threesome.

“It was a statistic I found online, so it’s not exactly scientific and I wouldn’t go into court with it,” he says with a laugh. But it certainly got his creative juices flowing to produce Alan, Robin and Jezebel, the play’s three characters.

Alan and Robin are a high-flying couple who meet at a business meeting and hook up when Robin impulsively asks the practical Alan if he’d like to go on a date. Six months later they are still together, but the sexual spark between them is dimming so they decide it’s time to spice things up.  This leads them to a threesome with Jezebel, a woman who seems lost in life as well as in love. Given that it’s a comedy, audiences can expect some funny misunderstandings and complications until matters are resolved.  

“A complicated situation helps in farce,” observes Mark of play’s storyline. “So if you have two people and add a third, what you get is several truths going on at the same time. When people have to keep things hidden, there are various truths bounding around.

“I was always attracted to comedy and have got more into farce lately,” adds the playwright, who started writing as well as acting while studying maths at Trinity College.

Since graduating he has continued to act and write, working for theatre, TV, radio, magazines and the internet. 

Jezebel, which won the prestigious Stewart Parker Trust New Playwrights Bursary, was commissioned by Dublin based Rough Magic Theatre Company and it premiered at Project Arts Centre, Dublin in December 2012. It was developed under Rough Magic’s SEEDS programme, now in its twelfth year, which nurtures new talent in all areas of theatre.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.