Reviews

“Through a nimbly constructed verse text, the effervescent Preissner explains the addictive appeal of analgesia, responding to the shock of leaving Cork for Dublin, or the trauma of heartbreak, or the headache of a barking dog, with a double dose of painkillers.”
Peter Crawley, Irish Times

"Stefanie Preissner shows herself to be a serious talent well on the road to becoming a major one." Chris O'Rourke, Examiner.com


"The script ... strikes a good balance between humour and gravity, and Preissner delivers it with aplomb."

Michael Paye, ReviewsGate.com

“Charming, powerful and interesting, it's a great achievement for Preissner”

 Daragh Doyle, worldirish.com

"A staggering, uncompromising yet hilarious account of addiction, emigration and depression." - The College Tribune UCD






Evidence of Critical Acclaim: 
Irish Independent. *****
(Emer O' Kelly)

A HEADACHE WORTH HAVING.

Solpadeine show provides an impressively assured start to Fringe Festival

Solpadeine is my Boyfriend is a With An F Production for the opening of the ABSOLUTFringe Frestival. It’s written and performed by Stefanie Preissner at Project (Arts Centre) and it’s hugely impressive. A take on twentysomething angst is frequently dreary, self-pitying and imbued with an over-whelming sense of entitlement. Preissner’s fictional mid-20’s woman avoids all the pitfalls; she’s irredeemably and irrevocably adult.
But she’s addicted to daily doses of Solpadeine which she takes as a matter of frequent course to dull the pain of the barking-dog headaches which pursue her through arrival in Dublin from Cork armed with her degree, and disarmed of a job. Her new boyfriend, a qualified engineer is similarly bereft.
Two years later, bemused and confused by texts from friends in Australia which portray a lifestyle of lying in the sun all day, and being drunk all the time, as desirable, she attempts suicide. Emotional break-up and breakdown follow. But the anguish too is adult: her country has failed her, but other countries and situations impose different kinds of failure. She knows this; “I think too much”. She does indeed and how deeply refreshing it is to see thought on stage in a contemporary piece which is so much more than an unimaginative snap shot of twentysomething life.
Preissner plays with acutely honest assurance, directed by Gina Moxley, in a lighting design by Eoin Winning. 




Irish Theatre Magazine ****
(Donald Mahoney)  

Over literature’s long history, great writers have eulogised the transcendent powers of opium, heroin and cocaine, to name but a few. In Solpadeine Is My Boyfriend, Stefanie Preissner documents one woman’s attachment to an accessible, over-the-counter fix, solpadeine (which we learn is three parts paracetamol, caffeine and codeine) at a time when the world is falling down all around her. Part voyage from innocence to depression, part open letter to Generation Emigration, Solpadeine Is My Boyfriend is a brave, surprisingly moving production anchored by the endearing Preissner, its writer and sole performer. 

Delivered as an epic lyrical poem, Preissner sketches out a young woman’s frightened move from Cork to Dublin, her turbulent romance with a guy named Steve and her dangerous dependence on those soluble white pills in the red box. The power of Solpadeine Is My Boyfriend comes from the infectious Preissner’s unflinching confrontation with both depression and the psychic paralysis of post- boom Ireland. 

Director Gina Moxley and choreographer Clide Delaney help animate Preissner’s vulnerability, as she restlessly moves around the stage, burying herself in a bean bag, jabbing a punching bag. Though the narrative loses some of its thrust towards the end, it’s clear that Stefanie Preissner is one of the stars of this year’s Fringe.

Examiner  *****

(Chris O’Rourke) 

A homesick, Cork woman relocates to Dublin, followed by a stray, black dog and text messages that get less frequent as the days pass. Eventually she meets Stephen, an engineer who almost kills her, and they embark on a love, hate, love again, hate again rollercoaster ride they call a relationship. But this woman has issues, and Stephen has issues with her issues. She has issues with herself, with dysfunctional expectations of a dysfunctional society, with the indecisive Stephen and with Solpadeine. She takes three every morning just to start the day and keeps them hidden beneath the sink. Solpadeine numbs the too much emotions her hypersensitivity feels in a world where no one does what they say they’ll do. Solpadeine takes better care of her than her boyfriend does, around whom thoughts of suicide and fantasies of well attended funerals are never too far away. The struggle to keep loneliness, fear and abandonment at bay, in a world and a woman on the verge of catastrophe, sits at the heart of Stefanie Preissner’s marvellous new play, Solapedeine Is My Boyfriend, a dark, delightful and intelligent comedy and a one woman, tour de force.
Produced by With An ‘F’ Productions and performed by author Stefanie Preissner, Solpadeine Is My Boyfriend falls into two distinct segments. The first charts her move to Dublin and her uncertain relationship with Stephen, who has one eye on moving to Australia. The second relates a series of rambling observations and insights illuminating the whys behind the whats of this woman’s existence.
Solpadeine, part caffeine, part paracetamol, part codeine, with an irresistible attraction to water, is one of many metaphors that run throughout Solapedeine Is My Boyfriend. Written, for the most part, in rhyming couplets so good they almost appear conversational, Preissner effortlessly manipulates language and pitches her delivery to perfection. On the rare occasion when the rhythmic restrictions of the couplet risks stunting expressive possibilities, Preissner astutely shifts to saying it as it is. Most notably when, with back turned to the audience, she lists a catalogue of ways in which she is worthless, failed, a failure and afraid. At one point the character herself becomes a metaphor. A kind of 21st century Cathleen Ni Houlihan, repelling her young men to distant shores as far away as Australia. Men who want to love her, who feel bound to her by guilt, but who don’t feel any real connection to her anymore.
Director Gina Moxley does an outstanding job in creating a space where Preissner blossoms and flourishes under her mentoring guidance. Onstage, with only an enlarged bean bag and a boxing bag suspended from above, Preissner is utterly engaging. Exuding a paradoxically confident lack of self confidence, Preissner embodies the strength of a survivor with the fragile vulnerability of an innocent abroad.
The plight of those who take flight to the diaspora and of those who remain to fight, or are just too frozen to move but still feel everything, is explored with passion and tenderness, rage and silence, hurt and hope in this memorable performance of a memorable new play.In Solpadeine Is My Boyfriend, Stefanie Preissner shows herself to be a serious talent well on the road to becoming a major one.If Preissner is not deservedly nominated for serious honours then a travesty of justice will have occurred. Word of mouth says this is one of the best shows of the festival. But don’t believe the hype. Solpadeine Is My Boyfriend is way, way better than that.


The Irish Times ****
(Peter Crawley) 
On one side of the stage hangs a punching bag, on the other sits an over- sized beanbag, and so Stefanie Preissner’s solo performance provides two responses to life-altering changes and emotional pain: Fight or Flop. Through a nimbly constructed verse text, the effervescent Preissner explains the addictive appeal of analgesia, responding to the shock of leaving Cork for Dublin, or the trauma of heartbreak, or the headache of a barking dog, with a double dose of painkillers.
Preissner’s real subject, though, is a nation slowly dissolving through emigration, gently described as a chemical process of weakened internal bonds that would otherwise hold things together. Director Gina Moxley’s smart and sparing production doesn’t burden that metaphor, although Preissner’s rhetoric, much like the similarly defiant I Am a Homebird, often portrays emigration as the easier way out. Her wry humour supplies a more convincing balance, moving from gruff defence (“Medicine is the best medicine!”) to an optimistic determination to feel pain, to fight it, and to feel better.
No More Workhorse (Reviewer unknown)
Solpadeine is my boyfriend is a one woman show, written and starring Stefanie Preissner. It deals with a young woman moving to Dublin, falling in and out of love and watching her friends emigrate, all the while trying to hide her socially acceptable dependence on an over the counter drug. It doesn’t sound like it would be funny, but in Stefanie’s hands, there’s a lot of laughs.
The set consists of a bean bag and a punching bag. The bean bag is dragged, sat on, crawled under and generally attacked in most fashions and the punching bag is... punched and occasionally hugged. Stefanie’s performance is high octane and her constant movement and stream of rhyming couplets, occasionally broken up by moments of near stand up comedy carry the viewer through her first months in Dublin.
Solpadeine is my boyfriend opens today (I went to yesterday’s preview) in the project arts centre’s cube space, and runs until Sept 15th @ 1pm daily. It’s just over an hour, so the perfect way to spend your lunch hour! (Although you’ll be a little bit late back to the office though!). 



Thejournal.ie
(Stephen Murray)
The theatre piece is a medley of rhyme and reason, a recollection of a life half-lived in difficult times told through lyrical poetry and narrative. Stefanie Preissner walks and talks you through a move from rural Ireland to Dublin, the necessity rather than choice to move either to larger cities or abroad that so many Irishmen face in our troubled economic times is humanised in a sometimes touching, sometimes humorous narrative.
An added depth is created when she reveals her addiction to over-the- counter drugs in an attempt to counteract the depression she feels in being an unemployed, dole claiming, and highly educated 20-something in Ireland and this memoir visibly resonated with the audience. A funny and thoughtful one woman show I would certainly recommend you see.
In three words?
Resonating. Relevant. Honest.

World Irish 

(Darragh Doyle)
I broke a non-intentional theatre fast on Friday with Solpadeine Is My Boyfriend at ABSOLUT Fringe and I'm extremely glad I did. Well written, performed and conceived, it was a perfect start to my ABSOLUT Fringe 2012 and it's a theatre piece I've been recommending to everyone who asks. When Stefanie Preissner takes to the stage at Project Arts Centre, immediately the audience smiles with her. It's a simple set - a large Buddha bag (a big bean bag) and a punching bag, but she transforms it into a myriad of locations, from her bedroom to Cape Clear, from Heuston to Sandymount, all the while telling the story of a girl who moves from Cork to Dublin and meets a guy she likes and loses. She's addicted to Solpadeine, the legal, off-the-shelf effervescent drug. I've seen and loved some great and memorable Irish solo shows and performances made recently - Silent from Pat Kinevane, The Parting Glass from Ray Yeates, Wheelchair on my Face from Sonya Kelly, Fight Night from Aonghus Óg McAnally, Eternal Rising of the Sun from Amy Conroy, Mimic from Raymond Scannell, Year of Magical Wanking from Neil Watkins - and Solpadeine is My Boyfriend from Stefanie Preissner deserves to be included in the list. Charming, powerful and interesting, it's a great achievement for Preissner, who has obviously put a great deal of personal creativity and emotion into the piece. She gives a powerful, physical and engaging performance with some clever uses of a seemingly simple but well-thought-out set.
Stefanie has a great delivery style - the rhyming is simple, the text straightforward, the ideas recognisable and accessible. Can /Japan. Car/Scar. Distracted/Reacted. The rhyme never detracts from the piece. She conjures the scenes she describes in verse half way between rap and comedy and holds the audience's attention throughout. She is candid and pretenseless, funny and self effacing. She is great at impressions and at accents. The matter-of-fact delivery of some embarrassing and emotional memories heightens the humour and makes Stefanie all the more likable. The laughter rarely stopped from the audience, even, I thought at times, to things that weren't funny at all.
"...And the Solpadeine flows past every door, distributing comfort and safety to every pore. The Solpadeine army now moves to my head, the other half tackle my heart, they tread softly and carefully to where the pain is and anesthesise it with their lovely lovely fizz."
At the heart of this story is an afraid girl who relies on the crutch of her drug to help her through the day. There's a strong commentary here too on loneliness, emigration, isolation and the fear that despite her pride, maybe Ireland isn't good enough any more. Maybe Australia is better. "Why didn't I dissolve?" she asks at one point, reembering being in a bath when young. It's a striking image - as powerful as the rip tear pull drop drop fizz fizz mantra. I don't think Solpadeine is written as a comic piece, despite the laughs Preissner delivers. It's an accusation, an indictment, a rallying cry against accepting what we're used to and how things are changing. The thought that people can just escape Ireland, that their lives will change fundamentally and be better because they're away is held to task here, as is the thought that things would be better "...if we were all still here, we could carry the weight... If we all leave, we make it worse". "I believe in Ireland" she says, before pleading to her friends posting tanned photos of barbecues from abroad
"Tell me you have bad days there too?"
"You can't see the dysfunction when you live in a country where something is accepted. It's not dysfunctional to put two solpadeine in a pint glass of water to make the day more bearable. I'm afraid. I'm afraid I won't be good enough. I'll always have a black dog with me. Afraid to be dependent. In pain. I can't deal with the pain. What can I do for the world when I find it difficult to be awake?"
Solpadeine is My Boyfriend is believable, realistic, topical, poignant, sad but hopeful, clever and optimistic. I really liked it and hope to see it again.