An unusual three act play, where each
act is set in the same location, ostensibly
a stark interrogation room in some anonymous
institutional building with drab two-tone
walls, a table and two chairs. Over the
centre of the table hangs a single light
bulb.
The
plot follows the common character, Host,
through all three acts whilst the interrogation
of the three other characters takes place
to find out more about their past lives,
their recent histories and the bizarre common
factor that links the three of them together.
Host exudes middle management status with
a strong desire to finish writing a report
in order to file it with senior management.
The first act is the story of Mother,
an angry single mother on benefits, living
with the latest 'father' to her child but
also an everyday woman with a secret. Because
she was abused as a child, she desperately
needs stability in her life. When her baby
dies in hospital at the same time as the
mother of another baby, she swaps the two
babies hoping that this will prevent her
from carrying on the cycle of abuse. Her
only redeeming feature is her past.
The second act allows Tony the Ice Cream
vendor, to tell his story of misappropriated
ingredients and ducking and diving past
red tape to make ice cream to sell to tourists
in his shop at the end of the pier. An Italian
immigrant, he reveals he has no scruples
when it comes to making and selling ice
cream.
In
the third act the seemingly unconnected
threads are pulled together when Boffin
gets the same treatment as the other two
characters. Initially he is seen as just
an affable, slightly eccentric inventor,
but gradually his darker side is exposed
and he is shown to be mentally unhinged
and more than just a bit psychotic. Having
invented a machine that turns chemical compounds
into their constituent elements, he describes
how he celebrated by making a visit the
seaside, taking his machine with him for
safekeeping. Whilst relaxing on the pier
he explains how he bought an ice cream and
was approached by a small boy who asked
what his machine was for. Boffin showed
what his machine could do, converting the
boy into, well, bits of small boy. There
was a standoff with the child’s father
and Boffin ended up using his machine to
convert the sea into oxygen and hydrogen.
At this point it becomes obvious that
the characters are all in a ‘heaven’
being debriefed by Host. The play is not
religious; it just uses the pretext as a
background, as the three common threads
are drawn together - the Boffin’s
ice cream came from Tony’s shop and
the small boy was the swapped child of Mother
and the man she finally settled down with.
The character of Host is crucial to the
play and can be played by one, two or as
many actors as are available and suitable.
Until the end of act three though, to the
audience, Host is an enigma. Host could
be male or female, single or plural. |