THE LOST TAPES OF LYDIA HOWELL
by Ray Scannell

A listening party for a forgotten musician.

Emerging post-lockdown, creatively blocked, Stanley moves into a Victorian split-level in a Dublin square. He discovers a discarded shoebox filled with cassette demos, disposable photos and journal recordings belonging to Lydia Howell (of the also-ran shoegaze trio No!-No!).

As Stanley reconstructs Lydia’s unfinished life through her artefacts and solo recordings, preservation becomes collaboration. Haunted by the work that never left the room, he finds an antidote to his own stagnation, culminating in a duet between the living and the dead.

But does preserving an artist’s lost work inevitably reshape it — or even steal it?

Following festival hits Mimic (2007), Deep (2013), and The Bluffer’s Guide to Suburbia (2019), writer/performer Ray Scannell reunites with director Tom Creed to premiere this new work, featuring the voice of Clare Dunne (Kin, Herself, Sure Look It, F**k It).

Premiered June 2026 at Stack Theatre as part of Cork Midsummer Festival.

Funded by the Arts Council / An Chomhairle Ealaíon.