The Lopsided Moon

This play is based loosely on my own sketchy translation from the French of Michel de Ghelerode's 1928 play, "Christophe Colomb."

The Lopsided Moon is a merry bit of revisionist history told through a stage play of comedy with songs that contribute to the message.

William Cates has taken the story of the discovery of America and brought it up to date with jokes and asides from his characters. Christopher Columbus is a man-about-town and his explanation that the earth is round derives from the shape of soap bubbles. (spheres being nature's favorite shape which he demonstrates). His queen, siren-like Isabella, sends him off on a mission to bring back exotics from any discoveries of new worlds donating for the cause (as she strips) the very clothing and jewelry she is wearing. As Columbus says, "Never has so much been done for so many by someone wearing so little."

The tone of the piece keeps up an energetic and amusing pace right through Columbus's discovery of the New World and its native inhabitants who are marijuana smoking loveable cannibals. The play resolves with Columbus learning he has been beaten to the New World by a red-haired Norwegian, but since there is no known statue of Eric the Red, Columbus is turned by King Ferdinand into a statue so that history will recognize the proper discoverers of the New World. Still, as a statue, Columbus has gained a sort of immortality which allows him to comment on the trash dropped around him by tourists and to soliloquize -- "Statues have so many quiet hours to develop great wisdom. The problem is … nobody can hear us."

Derived from a readers report by The Playwrights Publishing Co.

Three Typing Teachers and a Gladiator

As one would expect from the title, Three Typing Teachers & A Gladiator grew directly out of the Theater of the Absurd movement. It follows a form of theater that had a run of popularity during the 1960's and 70's (thanks to Waiting for Godot, The Bald Soprano, The Caretaker, The Sandbox or Zoo Story ….) although some critics trace the origins back to a few French plays of the 1940's and 50's. It could even be argued that Lewis Carroll, with his absurdist and seemingly nonsensical stories of Alice, is the true progenitor.
What this play really seems to be about is our culture's inability to connect with what is important. Three typing teachers are seated in a reception room waiting for their interview with the Gladiator - one presumes for a job although what that would be is beyond understanding. While they wait, they make small talk and attempt surface sociability with clichés and nonsense word play. While they chat, an automaton secretary breezes in and out reminding them that it won't be long, that it has been "…such a busy, such a busy day." Eventually the Gladiator appears dressed appropriately as a gladiator, including a whip but also with a clipboard under his arm and a cigar in his hand.
I won't spoil the plot with any more details. I'll only say that this is a fast paced delightfully witty comedy that keeps one guessing where it's all going. Or where we are all going.

R. P. Harrow