Book Description

This collection contains six fascinating comedies by the avant-garde playwright, Robert Reichardt. Each is unique in its subject matter, and dazzling in originality. ORANGE LIPS AND THE BARBECUE PEOPLE answers the question about what happens to people when they wind up in Purgatory -- that in-between place described by Dante. Do they just sit and wait? No, they barbecue and run the lives of selected people still on Earth. A group of obnoxious barbecue people get involved with the family of Kenny "Orange Lips" Jung, and this leads to riotous conflict. ECHO AND THE CAMOUFLAGE, is set in modern Chicago, and is loosely based on the Greek Myth of Echo, Narcissus, and Queen Hera. A young blind girl, Echo Seltsam, is suddenly cured and transformed by a miracle into The Blue Lady -- a person of unlimited power. What she does with it, and how it effects her narcissistic, camouflage-wearing Father, Jerry, and others provides the comic structure of the play. The short play, KAREN, THE FUSE LADY, describes a bizarre Summer "romance" in a cheap Chicago tenement, as a young renter becomes involved with his neurotic neighbor. He battles to save his electricity (and sanity) from a woman who has other ideas about how he should live his life. HAT-P-1, OR A BIG CRUNCH. After scientists predict the Universe will soon end in a "Big Crunch," a group gathers in an affluent Chicago suburb for a black-tie party to comfort one another. It doesn't work out that way. The guests soon discover a lot about one another (not much of it good), and engage in various forms of escapism -- primarily focused on unrealistic thoughts about going to HAT-P-1, a newly discovered gigantic planet so light and fluffy it would float on water.