Day (After Day) In the Life of the Useless is an episodic comedy which charts the dissolution of the life of its protagonist, Pete, an unremarkable office drone whose girlfriend leaves him, he loses his job and any affection he had for his parents, discovers his friends are self-interested fools, and falls into increasingly ludicrous semi-criminal acts to repay his growing debts.

Pete is played by Will O’Mahony, who authored the script and collaborates with Adam Mitchell to direct. Despite Pete’s growing sense of despair, the production maintains an even pace, each of the 35 scenes chronicling yet another indignity to which he is subjected, or foolish choice he makes.

Will O’Mahony in Day (After Day) In The Life Of The Useless. Photo © Daniel James Grant

While consistently funny and well written, the basic conceit of the piece is not novel, drawing on Absurdist literature and other works which revolve around the misadventures of a Woody-Allen-esque schlemiel, be this in Franz Kafka’s The Trial (1925) or Martin Scorsese’s very loose filmic 1985 adaptation of it as After Hours. O’Mahony borrows directly from Woody Allen the teasing practice of projecting before...