A lighthearted yet tragic story of coming out, immigration, and bead-clenching Catholic mothers.
Step into the Mooncoin, a grubby Irish pub in an even grottier part of London, and meet our Séan. With the help of our fantastic pub band, he’ll tell you all about how he met Stan, a starry-eyed, hopelessly lost twenty-something from Poland.
The Story
Have you met Stan? follows the emotional journey of two young immigrants - Séan from Ireland, and Stan from Poland. Set in a grubby Irish pub tucked into a forgotten corner of London, we find ourselves at the tail-end of a wake for Stan. Our Séan is cleaning up the bar after last orders, but offers you one last pint if you’ll listen to his tale: how the two lads met, dated, and fell in love.
Set in the early 2010s against a backdrop of “job stealing”, anti-immigration campaigns, and changing attitudes to homosexuality, the story explores themes of identity, trauma, and the immigrant experience. On stage, Stan’s memory comes to life, offering his own perspective, humourous interjections, and corrections to Séan’s somewhat optimistic version of events.
Both lads come to London seeking a fresh start, but face challenges in their pursuit of belonging. Haunted by betrayal and an unplanned coming-out, Séan escapes to London and throws himself into the hook-up scene. Without stopping for breath, he falls in love with Stan, who quickly gets tangled in a web of Séan’s past relationships, new boys and flings. Feeling pressured into an open relationship, while only just beginning to explore his sexuality, Stan quickly gets lost in-between a world of lies, other guys, and nagging calls from his mother.
In a maelstrom of tabloid hatred for Polish migrants, Séan’s gaslighting, and having to invent a fake girlfriend to keep his deeply Catholic mother at bay, Stan loses all sense of himself and who he wants to be. Unable to take it any more, he ends his own life.
The Music
The music is inspired by a fusion of Irish folk and Pop with a distinct use of Irish trad instruments such as the uilleann pipes.
A studio recording of the songs is currently in progress.
Track list:
The parting glass
A new day
Have you met Stan?
Shit, I’m going on a date
Ghosted
If only
The telephone call
Beatitudes
A Stór Mo Chroí (Treasure of my Heart)
Suffocating
Allow me to help
Siúil a Rúin (Walk my love)
Down by the Salley Gardens
Fill fill a rún ó (Return, return, my dear)
Let’s have another go
The Imagined Life
