The trickle-down theory of pushing people around. A ten-minute play about the way bullying behavior is passed down and passed along – and not restricted to the playground. Commissioned by Dramatic Publishing and included in its anthology, The Bully Plays.
“There’s gotta be somethin’ wrong with somebody who can’t make a decent strawberry jam.” A boy who plays go-between discovers the down side of deception in this romantic romp set in 1950s Appalachia.
“What was I supposed to do, send him a telegram?” — Jack Dempsey, on the knock-out punch that floored Jack Sharkey, as he turned to complain about Dempsey’s tactics.
“Yeah Rome… they invented the alphabet. And sewers. Where would we be without sewers?”
“It’s bargaining. You’re bargaining with the fates.”
Len and Claire sense they are in for some seriously bad karma when his offhand remark at a party inspires the break-up of long-married friends. But when an anonymous sniper appears on the scene, both couples are forced to reconsider the trade-offs they have made in life and love …
“She tells me it’s over. I say okay, it’s over—and then somehow it just don’t stick.”
D.W. Gregory, author of Radium Girls and Salvation Road. The music and lyrics are by writing team Steven M. Alper & Sarah Knapp, whose musical version of Mark Harelik’s The Immigrant received two Drama Desk award nominations when it was produced off-Broadway.