Irish Goodbye

We are so incredibly proud of Melesa and her beautiful piece, Irish Goodbye. In collaboration with The Wedge Performing Arts Centre, the team at FEAST have taken a SCRATCH work in progress and created a beautifully layered piece celebrating love, and tackling incredibly poignant and hard-hitting topics like assisted dying and domestic violence. This piece was developed with our group, for our group, and to have the ability ot place it on the stage in a professional setting and have sold-out audiences, no less, was incredible!

We staged the show in the round. The idea being that the story would be experienced differently from different points of view. While this was initially the excuse to try and squeeze more audience members into our tiny studio theatre, the show really did have a different effect on the audience depending on where in the room you sat. We had audience members attend multiple shows, commenting how the intimacy of the play and the rawness of the content were made all the more palatable with the help of the intimate venue.

The script itself had come along in strides. FEAST was able to connect Melesa with playwright and Dramaturg Fleur Kilpatrick to assist with editing and the development to table read, table read to rehearsal, rehearsal performance, life span of the script saw the story unfold in surprising and sensative ways.

Our hope is that this will not be the end of this script. More performances or maybe even a professional season where the actors can be paid and as such the script can be published professionally through Australian Plays Transform. We have big dreams for Melesa and her work, and big dreams for our process, tried and true and ready for more scripts.

IRISH GOODBYE by Melesa Eldred:

Written by Melesa Eldred, Irish Goodbye was first presented as a work-in-progress during Scratch Night #2 in 2023. Now, it has moved from page to stage to a full production. This heartfelt and beautifully layered piece is a celebration of love, friendship, and the courage it takes to be honest with the people who mean the most.

“Misha and her friends have been through it all – long nights, big laughs, and plenty of wine-fueled poker games. But even the closest of friendships have their secrets. As Misha wrestles with a life-changing decision, she holds her cards close to her chest, waiting for the right moment to reveal her hand. When the truth finally comes out, will the group’s bond be enough to carry them through?”