READ AN EXCERPT -and also- BUY THE PLAY
“SCAB… is a textbook example of promising work, written with a yen for interesting language and liberally salted with well-observed details of the lives of newly minted adults… the play shines.” -The New York Times
“SCAB is an offbeat, comedic exploration of friendship, love, pain and healing …the humor comes out naturally in the interaction between the contrasting roommates as well as in the outrageous portrayal of academic snobbery.” -Backstage
“… Darkly funny forays into the surreal… Callaghan shows talent in the inventive fantasy sequences… A stylish production ” -The Village Voice
“Sheila Callaghan crafts sparkling dialogue for two goofy graduate students in LA… romantic entanglements are added with wit, and sensitivity. A whip-smart play.” -TimeOut NY (Critic’s Pick)
“Rarely does a play give such an impression that the characters were alive long before I began watching them and continued with their lives after I went home… The plot is unusual without being implausible, the dialogue is intelligent while still sounding natural… I would watch this play again without hesitation.” -offoffoff.com
“A provocative playwright who’s just beginning to garner a national following, Callaghan creates work that’s realistic and unpredictable, dark and funny, reassuring and disturbing.” -Philadelphia Weekly
“…it’s opposites-attract meets love-triangle, though Callaghan spices it up by bringing into this fray a heckling Virgin Mary statue, dark angels who play tiny musical instruments and relatives who poop their pants. This magical David Lynch-esque undertow sets “Scab” apart from others in this oeuvre. Where some plays are quirky, “Scab” is downright weird; where others give closure, Callaghan opens a wound.” -Seattle Times
“…a fanciful comedy drama… novel and absorbing.” -The Seattle Post Intelligencer
“The piece is beautifully written by Callaghan, whose ear for natural dialogue is superb… Intertwining painfully detailed scenes of intimacy with extravagant dream sequences featuring a foul-mouthed Virgin Mary and a pair of black-winged angels, Callaghan shows us that the women’s path to self-realization is alternately difficult and joyous.” -Theatremania
“Droll and ironic, Callaghan writes about young people believably and with intelligence…. full of big laughs.” -The Oakland Tribune
“Intricately woven…. a thoughtful tale, darkly comic, intensely personal and worthy.” -Contra Costa Times
“Wandering from the intimacy and hilarity of girl talk to the incoherent blather of academia to the intensity and illogic of Annie’s neurosis, “Scab” is both an homage to the amusing banter that overlies our superficial daily existence and a look into the complicated tangle of emotions just beneath… wildly imaginative.” -The Daily Cal
“…disarmingly poignant…” -Chicago Reader
“… unsparing black comedy… poignant…” -LA Weekly
“Brilliantly and poetically rendered… [Callaghan’s] playful sense of language and her attunement to her characters are enthralling.” -TimeOut Chicago