Greetings, people. It's the fourth day of the year and the third posting of 2011. Today, we have part two of your look into my idea for a stage play. As noted yesterday, it is titled The Tale of Oddley Hutchinson. Yesterday, I post Act One. Now, this play I've written has only two acts, so today, we have Act Two.
In Act One, we met Oddley Hutchinson and his new co-worker and friend, Gilda. Oddley finds himself indebted to a man named Newshaw, to who Oddley owes $3,000. Oddley scrambles for answers on how to pay the debt. Newshaw does offer Oddley a chance to cancel the debt by letting him date his sister, who turns out to be quite the feminist and not in any postion to date.
Down on his luck, Oddley then meets a strange woman (another one of my ideals) who offers a chance for Oddley to pay off his debt by suggesting he work at a science lab. Once there, he meets Dr. Milner, who offers Oddley a job as her assistant. Before he leaves, he takes a bottle of strange liquid. His first day, he helps Dr. Milner with a test subject, who almost kills Oddley, who then quits his new job.
As we begin Act Two, Oddley has tried to talk Newshaw out of the debt but Newshaw only promises constant pain for the rest of Oddley's life. Now, on with the show and Act Two...
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Scene 1 - At work, Oddley tells Gilda that he now has 20 days to pay his debt to Newshaw and he has no options on how to pay. He then remembers that Newshaw offered to let him off the hook for a date with his sister Susan. After being so against it, Oddley tells Gilda that he must ask his sister to cast aside her opinions to free himself from pain. Gilda offers to assist in her own way, now that Oddley has come up with the basic outline of a plan. Oddley then reveals that it is the whole plan.
Scene 2 - At Susan's home, Oddley and Gilda try to talk her into having a date with Newshaw. Oddley mentions that her opinions on men might be wrong and tells her that he thinks himself an exception to those opinions. Gilda then tells Susan that she, as a woman, needs to date once in a while to remind themselves of what it feels. After all of this fails, Oddley mentions the real reason and Susan asks the duo to leave.
Scene 3 - At Oddley's house, he and Gilda wonder at how they will pay his debt to Newshaw. As Oddley thinks over any other options, Gilda notices the strange liquid Oddley has carried since the lab. Oddley tells her that he has no idea what the liquid does. Gilda, seeing the bottle's shape, thinks it would pretty on her curio shelf. Oddley then lets her keep it, seeing no further use for him of the stuff.
Scene 4 - At Gilda's house, she downs a teaspoon of the strange liquid and runs from the room, complaining of pain. Oddley then enters, trying to find her. Just then, a group of musicians enter the room, saying that they jam at Gilda's every week. The leader of the group reveals himself as Gilda's brother and the group delights Oddley with two songs, a cover of an old country song and an original, over the sounds of Gilda's pain-stricken screams. The group then leaves, with an invite to Oddley to join their group next week.
Scene 5 - Still at Gilda's house, she enters the room, her appearence changed to one of a nymphomanic. As Oddley fights off the nympho-Gilda's advances by hiding in a closet, he then remembers back to Dr. Milner and Willow and how the two looked alike. He then comes upon a revelation, that both the doctor and the girl were the same and that the liquid does something to a woman's sex drive. Oddley then decides to wait until the liquid wears off on Gilda to tell her this.
Scene 6 - The next morning, at Gilda's house, she has returned to normal. Oddley then explains to her that he has finally thought of a plan to cancel his debt. He'll feed Susan the nympho-liquid and let the results date Newshaw, who will then cancel Oddley's debt after receiving the night of his life. Gilda has reservations on the idea, seeing how the results might go for Oddley instead of Newshaw. Oddley then decides to blindfold Susan until datetime. Oddley then calls Newshaw to tell him the good news on the date.
Scene 7 - At Susan's house, Oddley and Gilda tell her that he has arranged a payment plan with Newshaw to allow cancellation of his debt. Susan is curious as to the plan. Oddley then tells her that Newshaw has given him a new medicine to taste for a friend. If the medicine works well on a healthy person, Newshaw will cancel the debt. Susan, seeing no other reason not to, downs a teaspoon of the stuff after Oddley puts on her blindfold. The duo then wait for the results.
Scene 8 - That night, Oddley is visited at Susan's house by Newshaw, ready for his date and cancellation of the debt. Gilda then presents to Newshaw the results of Oddley's plan: a sexed-up version of Susan, who calls herself Susie. Gilda removes the blindfold, with Susie pointed at Newshaw. Susie then tried to do Newshaw almost on sight. Newshaw, impressed with whatever method he used, takes Susie out and cancels Oddley's debt.
Scene 9 - At Oddley's house, he and Gilda are celebrating the cancellation of his debt with a small party. As Oddley tried to produce the bottle of liquid that helped him, he can't find it. He then realizes that he left the bottle at Susan's house. Gilda tells Oddley that he hasn't told Susan to stop taking the medicine. Oddley tells Gilda that Susan is smart and won't take it again, seeing what waking up with Newshaw the next morning did.
Scene 10 - At Susan's house, Oddley and Gilda sit in a small room, as the sounds of Susan, back to Susie and helped by two teaspoons of the nympho-liquid, pounding away on the door to the room, locked and bolted. Gilda tells Oddley that he has now created a monster out of his sister. Oddley then tells Gilda to quiet down, for they must now wait 18 hours, the length of the nympho-liquid's effects, until Susan returns and they can leave the room at last.
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As in Act One, Act Two contains expressions of my comedy ideals. In Act Two, however, the ideals here are the centerpieces of my ideals. I must admit, these ideals and just ideas that are the center of my idea of comedy and what is funny.
Among the ideas expressed in Act Two was the two-room disconnect. In this idea, which I've had for a long time, while something terrible and/or painful happens to someone in one room, in the next room, something mundane occurs that covers the sounds of pain from the first room. As always, that mundane thing is a musical performance.
I will admit that when I first put this idea into the stage play, it was my intent that Oddley show off his singing voice that he mentioned in Act One. After some thought, it came down to what might be better if Oddley learned something about his new friend while she undergoes terrible pain at the hands of the liquid. I might still get Oddley to sing by having him join in on the cover song.
Another idea I have in Act Two is the locked room. In this idea, two or more people are trapped in a room and while one worries about what's outside, the other is doing nothing but passing the time. In truth, I'd rather have three people in the locked room, so the activity to pass the time can be a card game but you must roll with the punches the best you can.
In the play, this serves as the ending, where Oddley and Gilda must now hide from the transformed Susan until the liquid wears off. In this set-up, they can discuss what they have learned so far. Oddley can mention his plan to manage the band of Gilda's brother while Gilda can do nothing but worry about what will happened to them if Susie finds them.
In Act Two, I put in one of my pet ideas, the idea of one person turning into something else. That idea has always gotten to me, for we always have one personality. To gain another persona is a mark of good fiction, for a character can advance further without much help from outside forces.
In this case, Oddley finds that the strange liquid he found in Act One turns someone into a nymphomanic only after Gilda has downed some of it. Oddley then uses it on Susan to cancel his debt. This way, Oddley has thought his way out using an original plan (another one of my pet ideas). In the end, however, the liquid reminds Oddley that no deed goes unpunished. A true-to-form plot without too much baggage and the audience leaves the theater a little bit wiser.
I hope that this play will inspire you to write your own. I plan to stage mine sometime in the near future. I have ideas on staging and if I can find the right person, maybe you'll see me one day as Oddley, and who knows? Another play featuring Oddley? A movie? A television series? Oddley's future, outside that locked room, is a bright one (don't forget your shades, now)
Yours truly, John Maxwell.
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