The Joy of Misery: Four One-Act Plays

Cartoon is a comedy about cartoons and the joy of misery. As Siegfried, the cartoonist, remarks; ‘If you cut succulent slices off people, then everyone laughs. However, if the scalpel slips, then you’re down to the bone. But then, of course, comedy is tragedy speeded up.’ An Evening with the G.L.C. is a play about public morality versus political expediency, and it exposes the dire state of London. Labour Councillor Rennip, who is on the G.L.C., faces some very awkward questions from his son on the combative TV Current Affairs programme ‘Confrontation’.[b]Shakebag is a farcical comedy about an amateur company’s chaotic rehearsal of Macbeth and A Midsummer Night’s Dream on the Bard’s birthday while the amused ghost of Shakespeare looks down from on high at the antics of his thespian ‘mechanicals’. Succubus is Lili, who may, or may not be, a Mesopotamian storm demon or the Moon Goddess Herself. Mark, the Born-Again Christian, confronts Lili with his burning secret, and the play explores female myths, male fears, paganism and Christianity.