Duckass

by Dan Caffrey

Top 30, 47th Annual Samuel French Off Off Broadway Short Play Festival, 2022

Inspired by the horror shorts of EC Comics, Duckass focuses on two sisters who invite a local boy to their family's storm cellar.

Top 30, 47th Annual Samuel French Off Off Broadway Short Play Festival, 2022

Inspired by the horror shorts of EC Comics, Duckass focuses on two sisters who invite a local boy to their family's storm cellar.

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Duckass

Recommended by

  • Allyson Dwyer: Duckass

    Dan is brilliant because there is nothing funnier, cooler, creepier than stuff with a self-aware rock-a-billy southern gothic type twist. Poor Sherman, he just wanted to be cool and didn't realize being a cool guy is a wild world to navigate & perhaps he was actually putting a target on his back (or head?). Dan squeezes so many jokes, lore and even character development (those two intense sisters and their push-n-pull game of Uno) into a mere 13 pages. A frightening joy.

    Dan is brilliant because there is nothing funnier, cooler, creepier than stuff with a self-aware rock-a-billy southern gothic type twist. Poor Sherman, he just wanted to be cool and didn't realize being a cool guy is a wild world to navigate & perhaps he was actually putting a target on his back (or head?). Dan squeezes so many jokes, lore and even character development (those two intense sisters and their push-n-pull game of Uno) into a mere 13 pages. A frightening joy.

  • Charles Scott Jones: Duckass

    Like most great horror DUCKASS codifies a rite of passage. An ordinary case of nerves gives way to something frightful. Dan Caffrey plays masterfully with the creature-behind-the-door trope, but it's the banter of the two sisters, Tabby and Linny, that grounds the moral universe of this play and prepares us for Sherman. So quietly and effectively Caffrey builds the tension and adds some empathy for the duckassed boy-caller - just as things are about to get hairy. I love that Sherman says about attending horror films, "I get scared kinda easy," and how that fear leads to his doom.

    Like most great horror DUCKASS codifies a rite of passage. An ordinary case of nerves gives way to something frightful. Dan Caffrey plays masterfully with the creature-behind-the-door trope, but it's the banter of the two sisters, Tabby and Linny, that grounds the moral universe of this play and prepares us for Sherman. So quietly and effectively Caffrey builds the tension and adds some empathy for the duckassed boy-caller - just as things are about to get hairy. I love that Sherman says about attending horror films, "I get scared kinda easy," and how that fear leads to his doom.

  • Aurora Behlke: Duckass

    I am (and will always be) a duckass superfan. What starts as an unassuming-yet-somehow-unsettling love story leaves you with your jaw on the ground by the last page. I love the weirdness of these characters!

    I am (and will always be) a duckass superfan. What starts as an unassuming-yet-somehow-unsettling love story leaves you with your jaw on the ground by the last page. I love the weirdness of these characters!

View all 6 recommendations

Development History

  • Type Reading, Organization Samuel French OOB Short Play Festival, Year 2022

Production History

  • Type University, Organization The George Washington University, Year 2023
  • Type University, Organization Webster, Year 2021

Awards

  • Samuel French OOB Short Play Festival
    Finalist
    2022