A Little Box Of Oblivion
Stephen Bean
Genre: Absurd
Cast size: 5
Duration: 45 mins approx
Stephen Bean | Absurd | One Act | 1m, 4m/f
Short synopsis
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This absurd one act play features five characters : a 'cool guy', a woman in a hurry, a neurotic, a 'doom merchant' and an amateur sleuth. They have no need of forenames or surnames and are referred to in the script simply by their character trait (except for Dick, the amateur sleuth).
It is a lovely spring day in an urban conurbation. Cool Guy is settling on a park bench to read the paper when Woman rushes on with a box. Before Cool Guy can say no, the box has been left on the bench with instructions that the box cannot be moved, knocked, tilted or opened.
A series of motley characters then begin to arrive, each with a theory about the contents of the box. Neurotic, spurred on by a Government leaflet recently received, is convinced it contains a bomb. Neurotic contacts the police, but they are busy dealing with a cat up a tree! Doom Merchant is equally convinced (because of the same leaflet) that it contains anthrax. They phone the police again, but they are now dealing with a threatened suicide jumper in the local apartment block. So they take it on themselves to warn the public, much to Cool Guy's amazement and amusement.
Thank goodness for Dick, the amateur sleuth, who on arrival uses fact and logic to disprove all their theories. The problem is that Dick thinks that the box contains a severed human head from a Mafia killing! Cool Guy has had enough and waves the box above his head to prove that it is "... just a cardboard box ...", only to be caught by Woman who lambasts Cool Guy for being untrustworthy. Still, everything's all right now. Isn't it?
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