Season One. Six Episodes
Waiting for Brigit
Episode 1
We meet the staff in the kitchen of Kathleen O’Mara residential centre for the arts. There is a new guy in the kitchen. Residents gather for the first dinner and introductions are made. The famous Chinese dissident artist Zhang Yung's location is unknown.. Shannon saves a seat for her cousin Brigit who is running late. Shannon perks-up to admire the man on the lawnmower against Mary and Barney’s better warnings. Barney announces the plans that Megacorps will pay for the new exhibition hall. Brigit arrives.
Change Comes from the Skye
Episode 2
The cousins finally start on their collaboration at the fairy fort , ‘the original diary room’. It starts raining , Shannon is rescued by Malachy. Brigit must take shelter in the B & B. Agnes is there making a giant sculpture out of Una’s hoarding. Brigit takes shelter at Una's B & B where Agnes' sculpture has trapped a dog inside. Skye and Malachy plot the takeover secretly. Megacorps real intentions are revealed by Gunter who picks Skye/Malachy’s plans on the stoat cams.The hall is really a dormitory for artists, the staff are to be let go and the first batch of rich art tourists are due to arrive for the grand/opening exhibitionGunter overhears. Shannon suggests a star rating system for the artists by suggestion to Skye. More sightings of the ghost.
In the Diary Room
Episode 3
The cousins finally start their collaboration at the fairy fort, ‘the original diary room’. It starts raining, Shannon is rescued by Malachy. Brigit must take shelter in the B & B. Agnes is there making a giant sculpture out of Una’s hoarding. Brigit takes shelter at Una's B & B where Agnes' sculpture has trapped a dog inside. Skye and Malachy plot the takeover secretly. Megacorps real intentions are revealed by Gunter who picks Skye/Malachy’s plans on the stoat cams. The hall is really a dormitory for artists, the staff are to be let go and the first batch of rich art tourists are due to arrive for the grand/opening exhibition Gunter overhears. Shannon suggests a star rating system for the artists by suggestion to Skye. More sightings of the ghost.
Clash of the Cousins
Episode 4
Brigit and Shannon start recording in the diary room but fall out as Shannon is more interested in Malachy. Shannon tells Malachy (Malachy manipulates this) that she and Brigit have done nothing but gossip and to say that’s what all the artists are also doing unaware that he is manipulating this. Brigit starts a protest up a tree. The other Artists are unaware of what’s going on but won't listen to Gunter. Skye moves them all to Una's B & B under the guise of doing renovations for the exhibition.
Megacorps Artist Theme Park
Episode 5
The artists go to the house to confront Skye but Skye has used Shannon’s recording to revoke her grandmother's will and turn the residence back to private ownership. Damien’s ghost writer is exposed. Malachy reveals he was using Shannon all along with Skye’s knowledge. Skye won’t talk to Shannon anymore and fires Barney, Nora and Teresa. The artists agree to go ahead with the exhibition anyway and move in the dormitory as they have nowhere else to go. Shannon takes off her nails and starts stitching a quilt so she can win Brigit back.
Exhibition Day
Episode 6
Damien MC's the exhibtion opening ceremonies. He welcomes Skye on stage. Gunter reveals his stoat cam footage video proving that Malachy and Skye's plotted to ruin the residency and they confess to the murder Kathleen O'Mara's only son when they were young. Teresa reigns in the stoats. Her DNA arrives; she is the true heiress of Kathleen O’Mara's estate and takes charge.
Meanwhile, Skye and Malachy are arrested. Shannon turns up with her lopsided healing quilt embroidered with Brigit's healing poetry. Their wish comes true, they are published. Agnes sells her sculpture: The Madness of Ireland to a hedgefund investor for the millions, never mind about Una's decaying dog inside it.
Olivoff Smirnoff, the famous Russian dissident artist, does an interpretive dance in front of underground footage that proves MEGACORP is running an illegal cloning operation.
The audience full of MEGACORP board members make a run for it but are stopped by the police. The artists sit down for a final dinner. Teresa is now the lady of the house and Nora rings the dinner gong. Agnes donates the 10 million she got for the sculpture to fund the retreat. Damien pledges that his history book has been published and that Freda his ghostwriter will get all the credit for her writing. Barney has quit his job to join Mary to produce a musical of Waiting for Godot. Mary is free from A.R.S.E.'s constrictions. Shannon and Brigit have begun a blog and online shop for Druidic healing. They all join hands for Brigit's final blessing. The real ghosts appear revealing themselves as Teresa 's parents...
History
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December 2022- Literary Prize announcement. "THE BOXED IN POET" a staged spin-off of Retreat Comedy, is honored to be shortlisted for the Hammond House Publishing Literary Prize in Comedy. (The award ceremony is during the Grimsby Literary Festival in the England in February 2023.)
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October 2022- Creation of on-stage spin-off of Retreat Comedy. 'THE BOXED IN POET' a five-minute play in which appear two characters from Retreat Comedy. Damien, the radio host interviews, Mary the poet in front of an audience at a literary festival.
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October 2022- Creation of a spin-off of Retreat Comedy: 'MAN OF THE PEOPLE, MAN ABOUT TOWN', a ten-minute play in which a British fan and his wife go to a literary festival to meet his idol: Damien, the popular radio host. The stageplay features two characters from the podcast series RETREAT COMEDY.
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September 2022- #1 Apple Podcast Comedy Fiction. The series holds steady as #1 in comedy fiction and #2 in fiction in the Irish charts. #5 comedy fiction in France. Top 50 in the UK, and USA comedy fiction charts. Trends in India, Germany, Australia, Canada and Nigeria.
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September 8, 2022- Launch of Retreat Comedy as a 6-part scripted podcast series with voice actors, and sound-scape.
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October 2021- Receives art grant to produce live script reading with actors in front of an outdoor audience. (Athenry Heritage Centre, Ireland. )
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October 2020 Press. Retreat Comedy is written about in the culture section. ( The Galway Advertiser)
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October 2020 & 2021- Retreat Comedy receives an art grant to produce live script reading with actors in front of an outdoor audience. (Athenry Heritage Centre, Ireland. )
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August 2020- Fundraising campaign raises 3000 euros to finance expenses
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Spring 2020- Casting and rehearsals.
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February 2020- Covid Lockdowns. Online writing collaboration continues .
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January 2020- The co-creators meet to explore possibilities of creative collaboration. (The Tyrone Guthrie Centre at Annaghmakerrig, Ireland)
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January 2019- The Craic begins. Short-story author Aoibheann McCann & artist Andi Ipaktchi meet at the dinner table during their residencies. (The Tyrone Guthrie Centre at Annaghmakerrig, Ireland.)
Cast: Paul McClosky, Gavin Morgan Helen Gregg, Aoibheann McCann, Andi Ipaktchi
Interview
🍀 Shannon, a spoiled Irish-American wannabe-artist goes to an arts residency in Ireland to join her Druidic poet/healer cousin whom she matched with on an ancestor/DNA website. The beautiful old house by a lake is full of artists, writers and poets. The thwarted heiress to the estate returns and threatens the creative haven. Six 20-minute bite-size episodes.
