Incendiary

by Adam Szymkowicz

Elise is a pyromaniac fire chief who falls in love with Jake, the detective investigating her fires. Carrie, Elise’s therapist, is trying to get her to stop lighting fires and Carrie’s husband, Gary, is leading the life of a somewhat ineffective corporate spy.“Firefighting and fire starting get the noir-camp treatment in Adam Szymkowicz’s INCENDIARY, which tackles the whimsical dilemma of star-crossed lovers in the arsonist and arson-investigator fields … this nutty love triangle of boy, girl and inferno is charmingly original and genuinely suspenseful.” —Time Out Chicago“Hilariously ornate in the best world-weary, film-noir fashion.” —Chicago Theater Beat

Genres: Plays

70 pages, Paperback

Published April 6, 2019

Reviews

[Janine · Rating 1 out of 5]

Uhh.... lot going on here. Kinda funny at times, but has some serious framing issues with regards to: domestic abuse and violence, police brutality, and sexual assault. All of these things are played as jokes here, and it really puts a damper on anything that is genuinely funny in this play. It has a great conceit, a pyromaniac firefighter falls in love with a duty-bound cop, but it has so much unjustifiable baggage that I feel wrong rating it above a one.

[Mijo Stumpf · Rating 3 out of 5]

Concept really is super strong at its core — really really funny at times with some dated passages and characters. Good contender for my next staged reading!

[Tori · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not a big fan of this one. I think parts of it could work well if the noir element was really amped up in its staging and performances, but a lot of the jokes have aged really poorly. The concept is great, but I didn't find the execution to be satisfying.

[MaeReadABook (Mae Walker) · Rating 1 out of 5]

Read for a monologue I was given from yhis for a call back audition. I got into drama school, but I still didn't like this play. Quite tacky, as far as I'm concerned. Which is sad, cause the concept is dope.

[Diana · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5
Pretty funny at times and a great monologue at the beginning. Would love to see this staged.