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Choking The Butterfly

James Johnson

Genre: Drama

Cast size: 3

Duration: 75 mins approx

James Johnson | Drama | Mid-length | 2m, 1f

Short synopsis

Teenage conjoined twins Betty and Barney are left to their own devices in an abandoned button factory after an operation to separate them. Set free and equipped with money, can the twins survive separately, yet stay together?

Thrown out of a cosy institution of bath times and warm needles they grew up in, they are now left with a suitcase packed with bottles of milk and cash - the land of milk and money they dreamed of as children. Betty is excited about her new existence as a singleton. Free of her parasitic twin she strides out into the world for work. Barney is smaller, weaker and as he relied on his sister for life, now that they are apart he sees death roaring towards him. Both individually meet the troubled yet charismatic Brody who introduces them to the dark underbelly of a contemporary society riddled with drugs and voyeurism.

Finally set free and equipped with all the money in the world can the twins survive separately yet stay together? And, after living so long without temptation, what now for two teenagers who naively name themselves after a pair of cartoon characters they watch on television?

2m, 1f

  • Barney – a young man, late teens / early twenties
  • Betty – a young woman, late teens / early twenties
  • Brody – a man, late twenties / early thirties

Nominated - BEST NEW IRISH PLAY - BBC / Stewart Parker Trust Award 2009

“Superbly crafted … A thought provoking and at times an emotionally challenging drama” - Brian Cooper, The Stage

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Choking The Butterfly

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