Plays by Jack Gilhooley

This collection includes three full-length plays: MUMMERS, DANCIN' TO THE CALLIOPE, and SHOOTERS. MUMMERS: Every New Years the Mummers dress up in colorful costumes for the Mummers Parade in Philadelphia, one of the oldest folk traditions in America. MUMMERS is a sympathetic look at their attempts to cope with a changing world. DANCIN' TO THE CALLIOPE: A funny, zany, and strangely touching tale of two performers in a carnival sideshow who plot to assassinate a rural sheriff and then kill themselves. SHOOTERS: Lou and Barry work for the Russian mob as hitmen. The job happens to be the boss's daughter's boyfriend. But when Lou gets sentimental, Arlene and Molly enter the picture, commissioned to take the boys out for their failure to deliver, "I love this man's writing, though he must be quite flummoxed these days. His works, some of which I participated in readings (but sorrowfully not in performances), have done a marvelous job capturing the dark side of the American psyche. No matter how dark, that side always had an essential essence of sweetness to remind us of the America that was - up until 9-11. That sweetness is gone, if it ever existed. Unfortunately Jack will have to pick at many more scabs to keep pace with the new American dark side." -Ed Asner MUMMERS "Mr Gilhooley is ingenious in joining the reality of his engaging characters with the warring strands of American tradition that they represent ... haunting and effective ... the writing is most distinguished." -New York Times "A very American play has found a very American situation in Jack Gilhooley's MUMMERS ... This will be a long-lived, comedy-drama." -Washington Post ..". wise, witty and touching." -Variety DANCIN' TO THE CALLIOPE: "This unusual story takes a straight look at twisted lives, and makes you laugh at things you'd never expect. If you never thought murder and suicide could be funny, then you haven't seen DANCIN' TO CALLIOPE." -Southern Theater "The bizarre work is (also) enormously entertaining ... Gilhooley has a keen ear for the rhythms of language and delightfully macabre sense of irony. His characters are eccentric, but they never cross the line into caricature, largely, one suspects because he truly likes and understands these people." -The Oxford Eagle SHOOTERS "Sometimes the old jokes are the best ones; and the adage is certainly true of Jack Gilhooley's SHOOTERS. He takes the simple premise of the absurdly unlikely (actually he takes several such premises), and shoves them together to make a wonderfully funny and black melange ... The denouement is as funny as it's blatantly sexist, and the whole thing has an insane logic to it that almost makes you question any and all moral standard." -Emer O'Kelly, Sunday Independent ..". it is highly successful: pitched somewhere between the louche action of The Sopranos and Tarantino, the fast-paced existential wisecracking of GLENGARRY GLEN ROSS and Woody Allen's cerebral slapstick goofery." -Nadine McBay, Metro (Ireland) "The frothiest of amusing nonsense, spiced up with witty dialogue that continually evokes laughter." -Gerry Colgan, Irish Times