Chip On Her Shoulder

starring vanessa buckley
written and directed by jen mcauliffe

Single, Snacking, and Struggling: A Play About Chips, Comfort and Coping

Kate wishes she was all that — and a bag of chips. Spoiler: she’s not. She’s a mess, and she knows it. But she’s trying, sort of. She might even be a little bit salty — at life, at love, at herself.



An Aussie living in New York, chasing a Broadway dream that’s about as likely as her plants surviving. Until the “big break” shows up, she’s working double shifts as a nurse, surviving dating disasters, navigating endless auditions that never go quite right, and hiding from the crushing loneliness at the bottom of a chip bag. Because if you’re going to fall apart, it might as well be with some crunch.

While everyone else is busy journalling their feelings, attending reformer Pilates, Kate’s just trying not to lose it completely — one salty snack at a time.

This brutally honest, cheeky, and often uncomfortable one-woman show drags you through the weird rituals of coping: crying in hospital toilets, spiraling mid-therapy, surviving a string of disastrous dates that feel like emotional minefields, wrestling with grief, and wondering if you should download that dating app one last time — just in case.

If you’ve ever eaten your trauma like it’s a bag of chips you can’t stop digging into, if you’ve cried into crinkle cuts and found carbs way more comforting than people — welcome home.

Come for the laughs. Stay because you’re not sure whether to cry or just open another bag.

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