Comedy is a powerful tool for social critique. Challenging the status quo by making its logic appear absurd is one of the most damning acts a writer can commit, but it is also one of the most difficult to get right. How do you balance humour, whilst simultaneously addressing the severity of a situation?
It is this question that lies at the heart of ‘Swan Song’.
‘Swan Song’, having debuted at Dublin’s own Scene + Heard Festival, will now take on the world stage at the renowned Edinburgh Festival Fringe. The Fringe showcases more than 40,000 shows, and offers the best of theatre, comedy, dance, and storytelling. The University Times had the opportunity to talk with John Clarke, the writer and director of one of the most exciting acts hailing from Dublin.
‘Swan Song’ is a one-act absurdist comedy teeming with thrilling musical pieces. Clarke describes it as a “criticism of the disparity of the way mainstream media has treated minority narratives and subordinates them.” The play follows different stories: a fallen director reaches out to an actress to expose powerful people that he used to work with; another story follows a journalist who is fired by ‘Big Media’ because of her pro-Palestine rhetoric.
“I quite like theatre that doesn’t necessarily beat you over the head with a message, even if it has a powerful message there,” Clarke told me. When asked what he would want an audience to take from the show, he replied: “I think to have been entirely entertained and engaged,” highlighting his propensity for thought-provoking writing that entirely submerges you in the narrative and the absurdity of what it is critiquing. When the primary objective is to produce good theatre, the deeper critique naturally follows and leaves a lasting impression on a viewer.
The show is co-produced by Ciara Kavanagh, whom Clarke met at College when they were studying European Studies as undergraduate students. They were both involved in DU Players in their first year, before expanding on their theatre experience abroad. Having studied in the Dual BA programme, Kavanagh began producing plays with Columbia University Players before returning to Dublin where she and Clarke began working on ‘Swan Song’. The idea for the play was drawn from their professional backgrounds: Clarke recently worked as a reporter for The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, and Kavanagh was stationed at the United Nations Headquarters in New York City. Both experiences sparked an interest in humanitarianism and the ways in which the media creates, or hides, certain narratives.
Clarke was further inspired by Aisling Bea’s ‘This Way Up’ and ‘The Horse of Jenin’ by Alaa Shehada, both of which tackle difficult themes whilst remaining steeped in comedic farce which was an overall mood that he wanted to reproduce.
The play began as a half hour piece written for the 2026 Scene + Heard Festival at the Smock Alley theatre, and has since been extended in order to combine all of the stories into a single narrative. Clarke credits the festival with expanding the opportunities for the show both logistically and in terms of his development as a writer. After discussing the difficulties of finding affordable rehearsal spaces in Dublin and the cost of venues in Edinburgh, Clarke tells me that having the visuals on the show before the Fringe made them more attractive to venues.
When asked whether he had any advice for young writers in Dublin, he discussed the importance of just getting started: “you get the initial daunting bit out of the way, and then the initial drive out of the way, and you feel suddenly that there’s a whole area of opportunities exposed to you that you felt was not available to you in the past.” Clarke had always wanted to write, but never had the confidence to do so before ‘Swan Song’, and having some kind of pressure was the key motivating factor for him to get words on paper – “I think it’s almost good to just, even before you’re ready, bite the bullet by signing yourself up to something like Scene + Heard.”
Swan Song will be performed at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe from the 7th to the 15th of August at theSpaceUK in Surgeon’s Hall. Follow their Instagram: @swansongtheplay to see where the show continues onto next.
The cast include: John Clarke, Fiona O’Sullivan, Georgia Snow, David Flood, Alexander Hristov, Katherine Fanning, Marianne McCullen, and Richard Mason. Costumes were designed by Suzie Fouilhac.
