After the success of Spookemon in 2018, I had been thinking of how to improve the project and realised, I could accomplish that by improving the story and its relevance to the performance. I saw that last year’s theme was love and betrayal. I wanted the story for 2019 to have a different theme, I came up with the idea of greed.

it was during the summer, Jack Shadow cycled into town, nobody took any notice of him, they just thought he was another tourist. But, he would be seen walking down this street and over that lane. He would be very friendly but polite. He very quickly learned all about the town, it’s people and their story.
Very soon, he was performing little conjuring tricks at the corner, smiling and laughing with people. They soon forgot a time when he wasn’t there. He started really listening to peoples desires and began to make promises. He promised money, education, employment, glamour and most of all relevance. He used these promises like carrots on sticks, manipulating the townsfolk, making them do his will, follow his beat and forget their own.
Soon, these carrots turned into hooks that grappled the people’s flesh, Jack Shadow would ever so lightly tug until everyone had put their hope in him and his promises. Everyone had become so invested in his dream, they had none of their own.
Then, one morning without Notice, Jack Shadow hopped up on his bike and started peddling, all the people could feel their hooks being pulled by the invisible cord that bound them. In one agonising moment, the hooks were wrenched from their souls and all the dreams and hope flowed out through the scar. Jack shadow had reaped his harvest of hope and was moving on to another town.
The townsfolk were bereft, not only did they feel foolish, scared and desperate, but anger featured greatly. This anger had nowhere to go since Jack Shadow was gone. They became angry at each other, scared of each other, but the strongest emotion was that of desperation. They became trapped in their hopelessness if visited the town, it’s all they could hear, feel and started being themselves.
It was only when the old (well, young middle-aged) Seanchaí, began telling them a story of another town, which was really their town and its lack of hope. That they began to find hope again, in themselves, in each other and in their young people.

They began by going out, meeting their neighbours and enjoying themselves. They left the regret of the past and the worry of the future to one side and just enjoyed themselves.