Sh*t Happens: The Book

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We tend to judge what goes on in our daily lives as either good or bad. We get a promotion or someone gives us a compliment – good. We make a mistake or do something to embarrass ourselves – bad.

To demonstrate this point, she relates how she was recently being driven to the Lyric for a photoshoot and got chatting with her taxi driver about the theatre piece in question. This sounds really bad, but we loved it if there was a bomb scare because it might mean the bridge would be closed and we would get a day off school. He asked what I was doing and when I told him about the play and that it was about a gay experience in Belfast in the 90s, he kind of just looked at me and laughed and said there were no gay people in Belfast in the 90s," she says, sounding flabbergasted.

It's a very physically demanding role," says London-based Farren, best known for her television appearances in BBC's Doctors - Derry Girls fans might also recognise her as the severe-looking Janet Taylor, head teacher of a Protestant boys' school in the hit Channel 4 series. The situations range from mildly uncomfortable to downright nasty. Suffice to say, if the name of the game doesn’t make it clear enough, YOU SHOULD NOT PLAY THIS WITH KIDS. You may not want to even play this with your parents without removing some cards! Final Thoughts: If you like games like Cards Against Humanity, you will like SHIT HAPPENS. Unlike some of those games, this game truly can be played with two players, though it is certainly geared towards playing with a fun group of friends… AND NOT KIDS. There are still faint traces of a Derry accent, but the Farren accent today is decidedly neutral, I venture. She laughs. ZF: Any script or design ideas that came up to you, and you had to abandon in the creative process?

More importantly, you can easily adapt to play this game over video chat. You would read one person their situations and scores to make their ‘line of pain’ and then read them the scenario they have to play. Playing remotely has a minimal impact on the game because the player doesn’t see the card they have to place anyway. Or you can simply give them one scenario and then ask if the second is better or worse. MM - DS: Yes! We love when absurdity builds comedy in the narrative. We love to play a game of "what if?", where you try to find strange and absurd solutions for characters and situations. When we were in the beginning of the writing process the film Wild Tales ( Relatos Salvajes) by Damian Szifrón was released, and we were like: "Oh, shit!: It was quite impressive comedy writing, so it became a big influence on us for this film. The caretaker exhausted by everything, his frustrated wife and one totally depressed deer. Their mutual despair leads them to absurd events, because... shit happens all the time - Film Synopsis One potential weakness to the ‘misery index’ definite right answer approach is that repeat plays could in theory allow someone to remember where the situations rank.I don’t think that kills the game, as this would still leave open opportunity to debate the validity of the scoring.I also think that eventually, you could leave the misery index behind and make house rules to allow a player to determine which answer is right.This would allow the rest of the participants to tailor their bad bad situation submissions to the person playing, which would keep the game fresh.I was on the Lyric's New Playwright programme myself last year and had a rehearsed reading of my play last October," explains Farren, whose partner is Doctors actor Ian Midlane. Although harrowing in places, she says Verlaque's story is also very funny with "big peaks and troughs", but what attracted her most to the part was the honesty of the writing. Whether it’s a breakup, divorce, issues with your kids, your health, or a death in the family, life happens. Sh*t happens. So what do we do when the professional demands keep mounting when things seem out of control in our personal lives? SH_T Happens has its world premiere at the 76th Venice Film Festival (28.08 - 07.09.2019) and its directors are looking forward to watching for the first time the film with an audience. I'm choosing to face this moment in life with gratitude, and self-reflection, and as a massive opportunity for continuous growth, healing, and renewal.

Their row prompts Al to move out, breaking his dad's heart. Bert shares his woes with Martin, who tells him he fell out with his father too, and still doesn't speak to him. It’s natural, the Stoics said, to instinctively react negatively to a bad event. It’s what we do next that matters. We have the power to choose how we apply value judgements – after our initial reaction, we don’t always need to classify something as good or bad. It isn’t sh*t happening that upsets us, but our judgement that sh*t is happening.As the phrase goes, sh*t happens. Sometimes it happens to us. Sometimes we have periods when it feels like a lot of sh*t is happening to us at the same time. I just decided to stop [drinking] and then, being sober and having that clarity, I thought, 'I'm an actress of a certain age and I'm just going to write myself a part that nobody will give me'. It was also that thing of being able to laugh in the face of your own misery." Second, when circumstances seem out of control, it’s important to focus on what you CAN control. Here are a few ideas: Your breathing. You can control that. Which means you can control how your nervous system is reacting to the circumstances. You can control your thoughts. You can control how you view it. You can control how much power you want to give the circumstance. You have a lot of power, freedom, and choice. You can control how you show up and respond. You have much more agency than you think or may realize when things otherwise seem in a tailspin. In preparation for going solo on stage in Amanda Verlaque's debut This Sh*t Happens All the Time - part of this week's Imagine! Belfast festival of ideas and politics and the Lyric theatre's new writing programme - she is leaving nothing to chance. In the classic comedy, Wayne’s World, Wayne Campbell experiences one of these periods and laments: “What the hell’s going on? I lost my show, I lost my best friend, I lost my girl. I’m being sh*t on, that’s all, sh*t on, and you know what really pisses me off…” At this point the camera operator appears to lose interest in Wayne’s ranting and pans away from him.