The Youthful Adventures of Damon Dukirk @ The ONE Festival

The Youthful Adventures of Damon Dukirk is an episodic monologue about the peripatetic and hedonistic life of a poet who moves from great triumphs to dismal failures. It is both comedy and tragedy. Utilizing a combination of ornate and prosaic language, Damon Dukirk speaks of the successes, the poor decisions, the romantic dreams and great hopes he has for his literary life. 

Beginning in the unnamed province of his birth, Damon Dukirk takes an idiosyncratic path through central Germany, Iceland, Portugal, Sydney and into the Pacific Ocean. Dukirk moves blindly and quickly from an anachronism, to a cult figure, to the great dreamer of world poetry. Along the way, other characters help and infuriate: Frankie from Frankfurt, his financial benefactor, Cavendish Moulash, a gothic singer-songwriter who is popular in Portugal, a girlfriend who is now a major literary success and a sadistic arts bureaucrat determined to make him suffer for his art.

It’s a work about idealism and a lack of practicality, of hedonism and romanticism, of long nights out and the joy of creating new writing. It’s a work that will resonate with fringe artists and those wanting to break away from the conventional. 

BIOS:

Actor ZACH WEGNER

Zach Wegner's recent work includes Mark Chrisler's Worse Than Tigers at The New Ohio for The Mill Theater and Maya Macdonald's Raw Pasta for the same group. His play, Hot Steams earned glowing reviews at New York's International Fringe Festival. As Damon Dukirk his credits include San Francisco's Marsh International Solo Fest (2020).

Kieran Carroll is an award-winning Australian playwright who writes dramas, biographical works, adaptations and comedies. He has had twenty-five plays produced in Australia, America and England and has received writing residencies around the world including the prestigious Yaddo in Saratoga Springs, New York. His latest play, Finchy – Sad as Hell, a biographical play about the actor, Peter Finch, has been optioned by WMK Productions in Los Angeles for Broadway development.

Recent productions include the highly successful Sons of Sun (Sydney Opera House, 2014 – 2018) and In The Mens (La Mama Courthouse, Melbourne, 2017). In 2015, he was a commissioned playwright at Monash University, Melbourne. The commission produced The Truth is Longer Than a Lie, a research play adaptation about domestic child abuse from the non-fiction book of the same name by Dr Neerosh Mudaly. The play was published in November 2015 by Black Pepper Press. From August 2021, his biographical, one man show starring Damian Callinan – NEWK (The John Newcombe Story) will be touring Australia through Jally Entertainment.