Above photo: Cast of Feedem Fighters at Sydney’s Zenith Theatre
Plays by Dorian
Dorian has written a number of plays and more recently a hilarious musical about Greyhound Racing called Dishlickers. After the success of his first play Feedem Fighters – premiering at the Zenith Theatre in Sydney – he was signed to Origin Theatrical (who publish the Samuel French catalogue and Andrew Lloyd Webber and Rodgers and Hammerstein musicals).
Since then Dorian’s plays have been since published in the UK and more recently translated into Dutch and Flemish.
FEEDEM FIGHTERS
By Dorian Mode
Full Length Play, Australian, Comedy, Present Day
Cast Members: 5M, 1F
ISBN: 9780646584553
Daryl Lucas is a fat, happily married soft-drink salesman living on the NSW Central Coast, until the day he walks in on his cheating cougar wife and her young Pilates instructor. While he plots to divorce her, she arranges for Daryl to be kidnapped by a group of disparate lunatics calling themselves ‘Feedem Fighters’.
Inspired by shows like Extreme Makeover and The Biggest Loser, these calorie terrorists kidnap fatties and keep them captive in a soundproof room for three months, forcing them to lose weight.
Can Daryl convince them he’s only being held so his wife can drain his accounts and run off with her Pilates instructor?
Feedem Fighters is a seemingly innocuous comedy but below the waistline it canvasses issues and themes that touch the public’s collective soul in the perplexing duality of this image-obsessed/food-obsessed society we now find ourselves in.
DESCRIPTION
Full Length Play
Australian, Comedy
Time Period: Present Day
Target Audience: Appropriate for all audiences
Set Requirements: Interior Set
Performance Group:
High School/Secondary, College Theatre / Student, Community Theatre
CHARACTERS
• Casting: 5M, 1F
DARYL – 40, overweight likable soft-drink salesman from the NSW Central Coast, trying to divorce his two-timing wife. Believes junk-food is proof God wants is to be happy.
SHONA – late 30s, determined, cynical, former hard-core university radical looking for meaning now communism is dead. Believes the only thing men and sperm have in common is a one-in-a-million chance of becoming a human being.
KEVIN – early 40s, idealist, naive, dubious sexuality, always looking for the good in people but being perpetually disappointed. Earned his 15 mins of fame as the biggest winner on The Biggest Loser. Sent money over the internet to a Nigerian Princess called Brian to unlock secret funds.
GARY – early 30s, brawny, muscled, ex-SAS, skin-head haircut, more hair than brains. Obsessed with discipline, king-sized chip on his shoulder, enjoys bullying people, pines for the regimen of army life. Sexual fantasies about Pauline Hanson.
MINOR CHARACTERS (played by main characters if desired or necessary)
DOUG – early 30s, ex-army, good natured. Played by actor playing Kevin.
PARIS – early 40s, outrageously camp dance teacher, fit, lithe, dry, sarcastic. Played by actor playing Gary.
BERNICE (Voice or video only) Early 40s, Botox, fake-nailed, bottle-blonde, conniving, vindictive cougar with a fake tan and too much jewellery. Played by actor playing Shona.
CHAN (Voice only) – highly-strung local restaurateur on the point of a nervous breakdown.
MORE INFORMATION:
DISHLICKERS
THE MUSICAL
By Dorian Mode
Full Length Musical, Australian
Dramatic Comedy, Present Day
Cast Members: 10M, 4F
ISBN: OT-10824
The Harrigans are a local family who live across the road from Gosford Showground (where dog racing is held weekly on the Coast). The family has bred ‘dishlickers’ all their lives. Lorry (Dad) is a truck driver. Sandy (Mum) has a mobile dog-grooming business. Eldest son Gary is a vet. And younger son Warwick is a tradie.
Suddenly, the Harrigans’ world is turned upside down when ABC’s Four Corners reveals illegal practices in the greyhound racing industry. As the distraught Harrigans consider a move to the Gold Coast, youngest son Warwick falls in love with Felicity – a fellow greyhound owner. However, Warwick discovers that Felicity works for PETA (People for Ethical Treatment of Animals). The family is outraged and tries to stop their son “sleeping with the enemy.” However, much like the Montagues and the Capulets, the young couple fall in love.
Meanwhile, Lorry’s brother Charlie — a property developer — is suddenly interested in greyhound racing. Lorry is thrilled, but Charlie sniffs around the racetrack hoping to get enough dirt on the local industry to shut it down so he can develop the showground into apartments. Here Charlie meets Lionel, a seedy Fagan-esque character who can dispose of any dog for a ‘price’ and knows the whereabouts of mass canine graves. This is information Felicity is seeking. So she forms a queer alliance with Charlie, causing further conflict.
Can the Harrigans save their family? Save their livelihood? Save their industry? Will the industry clean up its act? Will the tabloid media pressure the Premier to overturn the ban? Will there be a happy ending for anyone?
DESCRIPTION
Full Length Musical
Australian, Dramatic Comedy
Time Period: Present Day, New Millennium/21st Century
Target Audience: Adult, Appropriate for all audiences
Set Requirements: Unit Set/Multiple Settings
Cautions: Mild Adult Themes
Performance Group:
Community Theatre, Professional Theatre
The Harrigans are a local family who live across the road from Gosford Showground (where dog racing is held weekly on the Coast). The family has bred ‘dishlickers’ all their lives. Lorry (Dad) is a truck driver. Sandy (Mum) has a mobile dog-grooming business. Eldest son Gary is a vet. And younger son Warwick is a tradie.
Suddenly, the Harrigans’ world is turned upside down when ABC’s Four Corners reveals illegal practices in the greyhound racing industry. As the distraught Harrigans consider a move to the Gold Coast, youngest son Warwick falls in love with Felicity – a fellow greyhound owner. However, Warwick discovers that Felicity works for PETA (People for Ethical Treatment of Animals). The family is outraged and tries to stop their son “sleeping with the enemy.” However, much like the Montagues and the Capulets, the young couple fall in love.
Meanwhile, Lorry’s brother Charlie — a property developer — is suddenly interested in greyhound racing. Lorry is thrilled, but Charlie sniffs around the racetrack hoping to get enough dirt on the local industry to shut it down so he can develop the showground into apartments. Here Charlie meets Lionel, a seedy Fagan-esque character who can dispose of any dog for a ‘price’ and knows the whereabouts of mass canine graves. This is information Felicity is seeking. So she forms a queer alliance with Charlie, causing further conflict.
Can the Harrigans save their family? Save their livelihood? Save their industry? Will the industry clean up its act? Will the tabloid media pressure the Premier to overturn the ban? Will there be a happy ending for anyone?
MORE INFORMATION:
MILLIE’S WAR
By Dorian Mode
Full Length Play, Australian, Comedy, 1910s / WWI, 1980s
Time Period: 1910s / WWI, 1980s
Set Requirements: Interior Set
Character Casting: 4M, 3F
ISBN: 9780992335564
Based on historical events, Millie’s War is set in the 1980s, when a number of women attempted to join official ANZAC Day marches across Canberra to commemorate women raped in war. Fourteen women were arrested. The following year, again in Canberra, around 250 women attempted to join the tail of the official ANZAC Day march but were stopped by police. The police were acting under a Section 23A of the Traffic Ordinance, a section conveniently gazetted the day before the march.
Approximately 64 people, mainly women, were arrested and charged.
With this dramatic backdrop, Millie’s War is set largely in the boardroom of an RSL Club. When the sleepy local branch of this RSL meet with the women in order to dissuade them from upsetting their sacred parade of remembrance, the crotchety president of the RSL Club is appalled to find his own granddaughter is one of the feminists attempting to spoil their day. Tempers soon reach boiling point as each side argues the case for the importance of commemorating victims of war.
CHARACTERS
Casting: 4M, 3F
ALF – President of the RSL Club, late 70s. Tweed jacket, regimental tie, highly polished shoes, walking stick, sprig of rosemary in the lapel. RSL Club badge.
MORRIS – Club Treasurer, late 60s, hearing aid, cardigan, beret, sprig of rosemary in the lapel. RSL Club badge.
PERCY – Club secretary, early 70s. Navy blue squadron jacket, cravat, thin moustache, sprig of rosemary. RSL Club badge.
KEVIN – Junior Board member. Mid 40s, overly tanned. Hawaiian-short, RayBans. RSL Club badge.
MILLIE – Late 20s, pregnant, 80s power suits, cornchip earrings, padded shoulders. Big hair.
ROSEMARY – Late 30s, short cropped punkish hair. Dressed like a male English Professor from the 1950s.
BEV – Mid 40s. Chain smoker. Short skirt. Push-up bra. Tobacco chuckle.
SURGEON – Late 60s, obstetrics surgeon, dishevelled, hospital scrubs (if required, played by Morris)
CONSTABLE – Mid 40s (if required, played by Kevin)
PUNTER – Any age, three-day-growth, boozy, tramp-like (if required, played by stagehand)
More information