Bücher von Dennis Kelly

Vince Locker''s life is tragic. His comedy act for the LaughCom competition has just bombed, ruining any chance of the cash prize he desperately needed. His life is in tatters; abandoned by his father as a child, an estranged wife, Jessica, who he seems to disappoint just by his mere existence, and living in his mother''s house with his bipolar brother and facing foreclosure. As he stands on Smith Avenue Bridge, suicide seems the only option until he is unexpectedly rescued by an old school mortician named Truss. Vince meets another of Truss''s rescues, Winona. Although beyond social norms, the trio seize on a quick cash fix that just might help Vince meet his child support demands-comedic tributes for the dead. The eulogies are hilarious and off the wall, sometimes disastrous and sometimes enlightening. They propel Vince into the dark underworld of the funeral industry, life insurance scams, savage politics, a kidnapping, the murder investigation of a destitute unclaimed  young woman and  threats to Jessica and his young daughter. As details of the murdered young woman are slowly revealed, Vince realizes that he has many ghosts of his own to put to rest.  The story is a brilliant thought-provoking  exploration of grief and death nested in clever humor.

A play for younger people, DNA is a poignant and, sometimes, hilarious tale with a very dark heart. It opened at the National Theatre in February 2008.

This tale of a mother accused and convicted of the deaths of her two young babies is a horrific yet powerful. By adopting a form commonly associated with verbatim theatre, the subject is imbued with a clarity that is at once both unrelenting and utterly engaging, as it slowly emerges that these events are not truth at all, but Kelly masquerading theatrical illusion as truth. What unfolds is a bleak yet tender exploration of grief, exploitation, and the innate hypocrisies of reportage.

This is the unreal journey through two disturbed minds and the unfolding events leading up to the self crucifixion of their father in the front room. Enter the insane world of siblings Michael and Michelle.