A Godawful Small Affair

by Hayley St. James

[inaugural Proto-Plays developmental Zoom reading, Party Claw Productions, October 2020]

[publication via Next Stage Press - November 2023]

A lesbian couple are put in an unexpected U-haul situation and a touch-starved, non-binary stoner is visited by the alien angel ghost of David Bowie. A pandemic rages outside. A wall separates them, but they’re all about to be connected, sort of. Can a relationship become...

[inaugural Proto-Plays developmental Zoom reading, Party Claw Productions, October 2020]

[publication via Next Stage Press - November 2023]

A lesbian couple are put in an unexpected U-haul situation and a touch-starved, non-binary stoner is visited by the alien angel ghost of David Bowie. A pandemic rages outside. A wall separates them, but they’re all about to be connected, sort of. Can a relationship become routine if there’s nothing else? Can life? And can a change in routine become a blessing? A messy, kind of sad, kind of hopeful, and deeply intimate play exploring touch, longing, time, and routine in the age of Corona, and what this pandemic has done to us. And also David Bowie.

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A Godawful Small Affair

Recommended by

  • Jacquelyn Floyd-Priskorn: A Godawful Small Affair

    This play flows very much how time flowed during the pandemic lockdowns. Disjointed, dreamy. Where even the things we loved and looked forward to at home became routine and mundane. But then there is the magic of connection. Of breaking down walls and finding the magic beyond the walls and locking the magic back in again with you. A poetic, lyrical, queer dreamscape.

    This play flows very much how time flowed during the pandemic lockdowns. Disjointed, dreamy. Where even the things we loved and looked forward to at home became routine and mundane. But then there is the magic of connection. Of breaking down walls and finding the magic beyond the walls and locking the magic back in again with you. A poetic, lyrical, queer dreamscape.

  • Jaxson Mackling: A Godawful Small Affair

    Might I say, I am speechless. A GODAWFUL SMALL AFFAIR is just what the world needs. Is this play a dream? Is this real life? What is this life, I am living in? Hayley takes the Covid times and relives them in a piece that is so lively, it makes me feel like I am a BOWIE himself; just watching. Watching everything unfold. And the writing style...What the — it's simple and straightforward, yet gripping and mythical.
    I aspire to be you. Prolific. Masterful. Perfection.

    Might I say, I am speechless. A GODAWFUL SMALL AFFAIR is just what the world needs. Is this play a dream? Is this real life? What is this life, I am living in? Hayley takes the Covid times and relives them in a piece that is so lively, it makes me feel like I am a BOWIE himself; just watching. Watching everything unfold. And the writing style...What the — it's simple and straightforward, yet gripping and mythical.
    I aspire to be you. Prolific. Masterful. Perfection.

  • Jarred Corona: A Godawful Small Affair

    Art is where we go to escape and where we go to find ourselves, our worlds, our times, and the strange ways we perceive reality. Many of us need it to survive. And it brings us together. It really is a magical, spatial mysticism. And, if you're a sexual person, the same can be said of sex. It's a connection. It's love. It's the passing of time. It's a way to find safety in the cold grasps of life. St. James takes us through the crippling loneliness of Covid times but shows us beauty. There's nothing godawful about this show.

    Art is where we go to escape and where we go to find ourselves, our worlds, our times, and the strange ways we perceive reality. Many of us need it to survive. And it brings us together. It really is a magical, spatial mysticism. And, if you're a sexual person, the same can be said of sex. It's a connection. It's love. It's the passing of time. It's a way to find safety in the cold grasps of life. St. James takes us through the crippling loneliness of Covid times but shows us beauty. There's nothing godawful about this show.

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Character Information

  • Luca
    Twenty-something, non-binary, bisexual. Short, faded-green-dyed hair. Ambivert, addictive personality, probably somewhere on the autism spectrum, hyperfixates easily. Stoner.
    Character Age
    20s
    Character Gender Identity
    Non-binary
  • Bowie
    An unnervingly handsome, alien-angel man. Presents as a hallucinatory manifestation of David Bowie. In between lives. Androgynous, pale, cosmic, statuesque, dripping queer alien energy.
    Character Age
    ageless
    Character Gender Identity
    male (yet transcends gender)
  • Jodie
    Twenty-something lesbian. Mousy hair. Introvert, empathetic and surprisingly experimental. Soft butch/futch. Poet.
    Character Age
    20s
    Character Gender Identity
    Cis Woman
  • Nessa
    Twenty-something lesbian. Long black hair. Extrovert, frisky but cautious. Femme. Photographer.
    Character Age
    20s
    Character Race/Ethnic Identity
    BIPOC
    Character Gender Identity
    Cis Woman

Development History

  • Type Reading, Organization SUNY Fredonia - Disruptive Compassion, Year 2021
  • Type Reading, Organization Scantic River Productions, Year 2021
  • Type Reading, Organization Party Claw Productions, Year 2020

Production History

  • Type University, Organization Trash Rats Theatre Collective (SUNY Fredonia), Year 2023