An Analysis Of Six One Act Plays

Essay, Research Paper

Play write-ups

Hard Candy

by : Jonathan Rand

Hard Candy is a one act comedy about hiring practices for Banff Enterprises. It is set in the offices of employment at Banff Enterprises. The interesting part of the play is that every character that applies and gets hired takes over the job of the previous interviewer. I found it to be a very humorous play that deals with interviewing tactics and inter-office dilemmas. The only real main character is Linda the secretary who is the only continuing character throughout the entire play. Every other character is only in one or two scenes. In the beginning of the play Linda, the secretary, is very jovial and excited, but as time and the play go one she becomes more and more depressed until she just doesn’t care any longer and kills the manager at the time. She is an interesting character that personifies so many of the people in the work force. Then the applicants/managers range from a variety of personalities. There is the original manager who was in a fraternity with the first applicant, Bob. Therefore Bob got the job with no experience and no skills. Bob, the next manager, interviews Cindy who is a insanely intelligent woman. She knows forty eight languages and has eleven degree’s. Bob tests her knowledge and in the end hire’s her. It goes on with interviews from a slacker, to a man who bribes his way into the job, a take-charge woman, a sexy man, an oddball, a military freak, and finally a shy young teenager, Jill. Jill is the one killed in the end by Linda. The secretary in the end, after the death of Jill, takes over the company and begins to change the “corruption” of Banff Enterprises. All in all, a very entertaining play.

Con-Artist

by : Guy Morton

Con-Artist is a play set in an art shop where a salesman, a very shady salesman, looms around organizing and reorganizing his collection. The salesman, Hugo Monmarte, owns an art shop called Hugo Monmarte’s Lovely Landscape Labyrinth. Hugo himself is the con artist, as well as the artist of all the paintings in the shop, though he acts as if someone else is the painter. He gets frustrated easily and has a fake French accent, he is a very creepy character. He enters the stage and begins his act towards the audience. Of course no one in the audience responds but there is a woman who is part of the show that comes from the audience and acts interested in a painting. So his attention is drawn to her and he tries his hardest to sell her a painting. She ends up walking out because he reveals to her that he is a con and she wont even accept the painting for free. Before she left a man called Poor Tom walks in and acts out of sorts. They talk to him and the woman ends up giving him three hundred dollars and a check before he leaves. After the woman is gone the beggar returns looking much better and happy. He appears to be part of Hugo’s scam. This was a very odd but interesting play. It could in fact prove to be a great in-class skit that could be performed by one of our groups.

The Mackerel Conspiracy

by : Darrell Kocha and Anthony Schwader

The Mackerel Conspiracy was a little weird. It was all about how people get high off of fish but at the end realize that fish doesn’t make you intoxicated. It was a play with lots of audience participation. The beginning starts out with the narrators speaking directly to the audience. They throw things out into the audience and then go out and yell at the people who caught it. Very, very strange. The story line has two narrators, and they are constantly fighting about who is the “real” narrator. The other characters are either part of the problem or part of the solution. There is a group selling the fish who in the end have a whole stash of “real” drugs in case the fish thing wore off. The other group is all about stopping the drug problem. Their neighborhood has gone continuously downhill, there are shady characters everywhere, people are constantly getting shot and killed, and no one cares about where the neighborhood is going. The end is very strange. Captain Turkey one of the “fishers” sobers up and arrests all the dealers because he is an FBI agent, but he was also one of the people getting high off of fish during the play, this makes NO SENSE! So the neighborhood gets rebuild into a family place again and all the fish dealers go to jail. I didn’t understand what his play was about, obviously it was about the drug problem in America, but why fish? And why incorporate actual drugs into it, i.e. marijuana, LSD, and heroin? I would not like to see this play performed, I feel I would be way to confused to enjoy it.

Animal Farm Center

by : Larry Wood

Animal Farm Center is a three act play about improving the productivity of the American farmer. The setting is in a governmental chicken farm where the new administration of the country has instituted a new philosophy of production ” better – faster- cheaper.” The play is all about the semantics of working for a governmental corporation. It is basically stealing an idea from Animal Farm a story about the Russian Revolution from the perspective of a farm, main characters are played by animals, which is what is going on in this play. There are animals that get promotions for all sorts of things other than good work. Mocking Bird, Crocodile’s (the CEO) mistress, get promoted for her beautiful singing. Mr. Parrot gets promoted for being a yes man. Wolf is hired for his ability to scare the workers into working harder, so it is obviously very similar to Animal Farm , even the title is. The basic prowess of the play is how the Animal Farm Center goes slowly downhill as the management gets continuously changed around, and the workers get fed up. At the end of the play it is obvious that there will be no happy end for the Center because Parrot is promoted to executive management and he will agree to anything that anyone asks, being a yes man and all. I found this a very interesting view into the inner workings of the government. I would have enjoyed it a bit more if the author had been a small bit more original with the idea, but still a very entertaining play.

The Crucible

by : Arthur Miller

The Crucible is an American classic. It is the proof of two eras in American history, the actual Salem Witch Trials and the McCarthy Era during the nineteen fifties. The actual play takes place in the year 1692, in the small village of Salem, Massachusetts. The opening takes place in a small room in the house of Reverend Samuel Parris where his daughter Betty Parris is lying in her bed, in a coma like state. Her and her cousin, Abigail, are rumored to have been practicing witchcraft the night before in the forest. When the fear of witchcraft breaks out everyone in the village is suspected. Abigail and her group of girls are accusing everyone that they have anything against of witchcraft. It ends sadly when John Proctor, the man she loves, is accused of witchcraft, his wife Goodie Proctor, has already been tried and convicted of the act. I adore this play! It is an amazing display of writing genius. To me this play is the perfect portrayal of American history during the McCarthy Era, and very creatively done.

Happy Independence Day, Mars

by : Jon Packbell

This was another very odd play. It was set in both a bar and private apartment on Mars in the year 2236. The first scene is in a nightclub with a very “post-apocalyptic Japanese Zen.” The first two of the three main characters, Sasha and Anne, are sitting at a table. They are discussing the political upheaval between Earth and Mars. Juresk, a Martian, the third main character begins to talk with Anne. Later they end up in his apartment, where an advisement comes up saying that there is political unrest between Earth and Mars. Then the climax is that Sasha and Juresk are lovers and were only there to get Anne to trust them so that she could be killed in the name of Mars. The last scene is a shot of Earth being blown up by the military and Anne screaming. This play is very similar to the Cold War and the American Revolution. With the political unrest between the Russians, British and Americans. It was very strange though with now real ending, yeah sure the Earth was blown up but it left Anne’s life hanging in the balance. I was not very impressed with the authors creative sense in this play.