Mark Fletcher

Teething Problems is a descent in to the consciousness of the narrator, a young man in his early twenties, after his life is upended by the discovery that his conception was the result of his mother being unfaithful to her then husband of less than a year.

He makes the discovery when he meets his real father for the first time, expecting the man holding him in a dog-eared family photo he has treasured since he was a young boy.

His dreams of a hero dad evaporate and he is emotionally incapable of dealing with the shock. Nothing else in his world matters.

He feels the discovery explains the difficult relationship he has had with his bestseller author mother for years and explains events from years earlier.

In dealing with the news he makes what is a private crisis public, in a café with his girlfriend. He plays with a baby tooth of his which he found when going through old things in his apartment.

A practical joke with the tooth used as an icebreaker goes wrong. His girlfriend misunderstands. He makes it worse by humiliating her, forcing her to leave the café in tears.

Half an hour later his girlfriend returns. He senses a truce and welcomes the second chance. She picks up on his earlier practical joke and he overreacts. Resulting in public humiliation for him with his friends, mother and father as witnesses.

Lost and shattered he wanders the streets trying to find a light in the dark tunnel in his head. He ends up at the grave his mother took him to many years earlier, where his ‘father’ is buried.

Talking through the events helps and he finds a way of moving on.

He leaves the baby tooth on the headstone.

Shirley, in her mid 80s, has always wanted to try stand up comedy. This audience in her nursing home is a perfect group to try out on.

In a rural town.

Mick Watson has served three years jail for killing his best mate, Robbo Stewart, in a car accident. His secret is that he wasn't driving the car.

All he wants to do is to say sorry and make peace with Robbo's dad.

Mick got out of jail this morning and he needs to see Robbo's dad before he gets on with his life.

The car he was in was racing along a mountain road when it skidded and rolled down the side hitting a tree. Mick and Robbo were thrown out.

The local football hero Robert, Robbo to his mates, clung to life for two days. Unconscious. His body twisted and broken.

Mick the one of the two with a driver's licence, who returned a blood alcohol level above the legal limit for his age, was in a coma for two months. He woke to be charged with manslaughter.

The trial was over in no time. Mick pleaded guilty. Speaking to no one throughout.

After leaving prison yesterday, Mick visited Robbo’s grave and then came to Robbo’s dad’s home.

Anger, agony, reminiscences and remorse are exposed in the duel that follows between the two. But it keeps coming back to Mick having killed Robbo. Bob is still not over the loss of his only son.

Mick decides to tell Bob tell the truth about the accident, that he wasn’t driving the car. It’s a truth that Bob, has trouble with.

The play opens with Nick Walsh in a police station interview room. His questioners cannot be seen or heard. The dialogue of the piece is Nick's response to those asking him questions and talking with him.

Nick has just been brought in for questioning because his vehicle has been found to have been involved in a road accident in which another driver died.

The other driver was Nick's dad.

It is eventually powerfully and dramatically revealed that Nick killed his dad because he molested him as a child. There are flashbacks to one of these incidents immediately followed by a flashback to the murder.

Nick's whole mission has been to retrieve compromising photos that his dad took of him as a child. When it becomes clear that the police will use these photos in a court case that will follow the accident, Nick is shattered.

It's the mid 1990s and introverted Joe is lonely. Bars don’t work out so he tries a dating agency.

After some false starts Joe completes his introductory video and sends it off for potential perfect partners to be found.

Joe is shocked to meet his first date, Ashley. Ashley is a girl and Joe is gay. Something has gone wrong with his paperwork at the dating agency.

So Joe starts again. Trouble is, he doesn’t come across as gay enough to be gay no matter how hard he tries.
He eventually and under considerable stress completes his ‘gay’ introductory video and is invited on a date.

Dating Joe ends emotionally with Joe ‘talking with’ his dead partner about his impending first date with David.