Snap'd
By Jim Daly
Age range
16 +
Cast size
10 – 15, 15 +
Approx. running time
60 – 90 mins
Gender breakdown
Male: 6
Female: 7
Also: Option of additional 11 male or female characters.
Female: 7
Also: Option of additional 11 male or female characters.
Setting
Multiple locations, open landscape. The recent past. Though originally set in Waterford the action can be transferred to any location.
Note
A memory play about suicide for a large cast.
First performance
Waterford Youth Drama at Garter Lane Theatre in 2004. Directed by Patrick O Sullivan. A New Stage Play for 2011.
Synopsis
Snap’d is a stylistic exploration of youth suicide. The play follows the story of young teenager, Jem, and opens with a ritualistic killing of Jem by his imaginary ‘Game characters’. The 16-year-old Jem narrates the play and it follows his life from when he was 13 to when he takes his own life at 16.
The play deals with Jem’s struggle to understand the world around him and why it stubbornly refuses to stay the same? His family is slowly but surely drifting apart around him and he fails to see why things should change. Jem was happiest when things were innocent, before financial complications and sundering family bonds intervened. His older cousins are all finding their own ways in life, as Jem is left to struggle through his journey alone. This play deals with the shift from childhood to adulthood, the associated loss of
innocence, and how some of us are left behind and get lost along the way.
The play deals with Jem’s struggle to understand the world around him and why it stubbornly refuses to stay the same? His family is slowly but surely drifting apart around him and he fails to see why things should change. Jem was happiest when things were innocent, before financial complications and sundering family bonds intervened. His older cousins are all finding their own ways in life, as Jem is left to struggle through his journey alone. This play deals with the shift from childhood to adulthood, the associated loss of
innocence, and how some of us are left behind and get lost along the way.