Reviews from the show:

“The finest and most relevant production I've seen for secondary school students.”  -Maeve McGovern, St. Peter's Community College

“Suicide Notes has the potential to enable teenagers to discuss suicide in a contructive, non-threatening and informative way that would help dispel myths and assumptions about the topic.”
-Dr. Sheila Rochford, Cork Training Programme for General Practice

“The way that the characters are played is so true in our society today.  This production needs to be funded and with your help, so many people can learn.” -Eleanor Higgins, Psychotherapist, Irish Friends of the Suicide Bereaved

"In a real and evocative way the play holds a mirror to society - and investigates society's responsibility for creating the circumstances that might lead people to consider suicide or self-harming behaviour as a release from their pain." - Phil Mortell, Social Care Co-ordinator, CIT

“I believe Suicide Notes will engage young people with its strong central storyline and will encourage teenagers to talk about difficult mental health issues.- Dr. Cathy Banstead

"A play dealing with the needs of the human spirit, love, acceptance, respect and belonging." - Cork city learner

“It was excellent.  Judging by teens in the audience, who sat quietly enthralled during the performance, it has just the right mix of information and entertainment.” - Jacqueline Daly, Cork City Partnership

“Powerful and dramatic and deals with a very sensitive subject but feedback was very positive.” - Gerry Dunne, Cork Mental Health Foundation

 

Suicide Notes

Written and Directed by Peadar Donohoe, BA Theatre Arts, MEd

Synopsis: Five regulars meet in the “Heaven Bar” and, for a laugh, devise a plan with tips on how to write a “good” suicide note.  Through the medium of this  interactive collaboration we discover why they are there,  what they are trying to forget and their confrontations with the suicide issue in their own lives.  This reaches a climax when their aspirations are confronted with genuine personal despair and loss.  From this cue the play transforms from a naturalized staging to a performance piece wherein the voices of those who have committed suicide and the bereaved take primary focus.

Suicide Notes is a work that reflects on and explores the contributing factors, notions, attitudes and fallout of the stigmatic quagmire of the suicide issue.