Reading Room: Magic Fairy in the Microwave

This week I had the great pleasure of reading what is likely the most bizarre, strange, weird, quirky, and hilarious play I've ever read. As a matter of fact, I don't think I've ever seen anything like it. It's violent and bloody, which is something you rarely ever see on the high school stage, but so gleefully funny (in a dark and twisted way) that it totally gets away with it. I am 100% certain that high school students will love its many physical challenges and teachers will appreciate its message.

The play is called Magic Fairy in the Microwave, written by Dara Murphy. It's published by Theatrefolk and I highly recommend that you check it out by clicking here. It's all about a young girl named Sarah who lets her imagination get the best of her. With the aid of a cunning narrator, Sarah reinvents herself, along her friends and family. Feeling trapped in her life, she creates an entirely new reality for herself that involves serial killer parents, talking kittens, and magic fairies. As a result, she soon loses track of what's real and what's fiction. By the time the play is over, practically everyone is dead.

This description doesn't sound particularly funny, but trust me...it is. I wish I could do the play the justice it deserves, but you will just have to read it for yourself to understand what I cannot put into words. Truly, it's a play you need to see in order to believe. It actually reminds me a lot of one of my plays, Laughing Stock. In that play, a narrator takes control of the leading lady and encourages her to invent a far more interesting life for herself than the one she already has. Only I never would have had the courage to take it as far as Murphy does in her script. She has a knack for black comedy and is definitely not afraid to venture into the darkest corners. It's the sort of play I wish I had written, but know that I just don't have the guts. Thankfully Murphy does, as does Theatrefolk for making it available to those willing to take a risk on something grisly, funny, and thoughtful -- three words you never see together...and probably never will again.