About the Play
Fall Out is a sharply observed dramatic comedy that detonates the fragile truths holding together a group of long-time friends when one dinner party spirals spectacularly out of control.
Set in a modest inner-city flat, the play brings together six characters: two former soldiers, a frustrated housewife, a beauty-industry entrepreneur, a pretentious pseudo-intellectual, and a mysterious new partner — each carrying secrets primed to explode.
At the centre is Dave, a volatile war veteran wrestling with unprocessed trauma, and his wife Suzy, whose buried artistic dreams and long-simmering resentment are reaching breaking point. Their guests arrive expecting a convivial reunion. Instead, the evening unravels through escalating tensions, dark humour, and bitter revelations.
As stories from the battlefield collide with truths long suppressed at home, the group confronts the deep scars left by war, identity, dishonesty, and emotional neglect. The darkest revelation — what truly happened during Dave and Phil's final mission — forces everyone to reckon with the moral fallout of violence, silence, and survival.
"I did laugh out loud, but then wondered whether I had any place doing that given how confronting Fall Out is. It made for a lengthy discussion in the car on the way home."
Audience reviewWhy Stage Fall Out?
Fall Out offers theatre companies a tight, dynamic work that is as funny as it is confronting. The writing balances sharp wit with genuine emotional weight, and the play gives a cast of six real scope to build complex, layered characters over two acts.
The themes — PTSD, toxic masculinity, domestic discord, friendship under pressure, and the devastating cost of secrets — are timely and universal. Audiences engage deeply, and the conversations the play sparks tend to continue well after the curtain.
With minimal staging requirements and a compact cast, Fall Out is a practical choice for companies working with limited resources, without any sacrifice in ambition or impact.
The Characters
- DaveA wounded war veteran. Depressed, homophobic, drinking heavily to mask PTSD. As the night unfolds, his vulnerability surfaces as his mind unravels. He has a secret.
- SuzyDave's wife. Intelligent, creative, worn down. Trusted by everyone, she can both soothe and provoke. Over the evening she grows more assertive and defiant. She has a secret.
- PhilDave's best mate and fellow veteran. Fit, gregarious, a great judge of character. Post-war, he has found his true self. Dave finds this difficult to accept. He has a secret.
- KaylaSuzy's best friend since school. Self-made, bold, wracked with self-doubt. She believes she has found her soulmate in Felix. She has a secret.
- FelixKayla's boyfriend. Witty, sarcastic, patronising. He believes he will never meet these people again — and treats them accordingly. He has a secret.
- AlexPhil's new partner. An unknown entity to the group. Brutally honest and wants nothing to do with secrets.
Production Notes
The play is set on a split stage: a dining and living room stage right, a functional kitchen stage left, with an interconnecting door. The decor is simple and tasteful but with incongruent details — a physical manifestation of the state of Dave and Suzy's marriage, implied at first and increasingly obvious as the play progresses.
Fall Out was first published by That I Theatre Company in New Zealand in 2025. Licensing is available through Playmarket NZ.