"THE CAST (4M, 2W):
President John Jones, the leader of the people
Mrs. Eunice Jones, his wife
Chi Chi, his mistress
Neck, the mortician
Charles, his assistant
Dr. Alberts, the doctor
THE TIME:
Any time
THE PLACE:
A back room in the Public Hall in a foreign country.
THE SET:
Upstage center is a table on which is a casket. A window, upstage left, looks out upon the square. Entrance into the room is stage right. Modest furnishings: this is the room in which the corpses of public figures are kept before being put on display to the people.
(AT RISE: DR. ALBERTS has his back to the audience, inspecting a body in the casket. Waiting expectantly are MRS. JONES, NECK and CHARLES. Mrs. Jones, who is in mourning, is dressed in black. She holds a black lace handkerchief over her sobs. The doctor turns and moves away from the casket.)
NECK: Well, doctor?
DR. ALBERTS: Your suspicions are correct. I find the organ to be tumescent.
(Mrs. Jones breaks into tears.)"
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This one-act political farce was written in 1975 and remains among my favorites. It's seldom, seldom, seldom performed. I have plans to make an animation of it once my Alice skills are good enough. I've had a few friends remember it. One asked once, "What the hell is the name of that great short play of yours about a corpse with a hard on?" Naming the mortician Neck was Major Inspiration.
It would be nice if this were done now and again but this fact matters little compared to my satisfaction, indeed pride and wonder, in having written it. Work that you still like 35 years later is no small accomplishment for a writer. I am blessed to have a considerable amount of work, all things considered, that I still own up to. And this little farce is high on the list. It was conceived as part of a trilogy of plays about death, The Death Cycle, which is in my archive.
President John Jones, the leader of the people
Mrs. Eunice Jones, his wife
Chi Chi, his mistress
Neck, the mortician
Charles, his assistant
Dr. Alberts, the doctor
THE TIME:
Any time
THE PLACE:
A back room in the Public Hall in a foreign country.
THE SET:
Upstage center is a table on which is a casket. A window, upstage left, looks out upon the square. Entrance into the room is stage right. Modest furnishings: this is the room in which the corpses of public figures are kept before being put on display to the people.
(AT RISE: DR. ALBERTS has his back to the audience, inspecting a body in the casket. Waiting expectantly are MRS. JONES, NECK and CHARLES. Mrs. Jones, who is in mourning, is dressed in black. She holds a black lace handkerchief over her sobs. The doctor turns and moves away from the casket.)
NECK: Well, doctor?
DR. ALBERTS: Your suspicions are correct. I find the organ to be tumescent.
(Mrs. Jones breaks into tears.)"
Click link above to continue.
This one-act political farce was written in 1975 and remains among my favorites. It's seldom, seldom, seldom performed. I have plans to make an animation of it once my Alice skills are good enough. I've had a few friends remember it. One asked once, "What the hell is the name of that great short play of yours about a corpse with a hard on?" Naming the mortician Neck was Major Inspiration.
It would be nice if this were done now and again but this fact matters little compared to my satisfaction, indeed pride and wonder, in having written it. Work that you still like 35 years later is no small accomplishment for a writer. I am blessed to have a considerable amount of work, all things considered, that I still own up to. And this little farce is high on the list. It was conceived as part of a trilogy of plays about death, The Death Cycle, which is in my archive.
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