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A DRAMATISTS PLAY SERVICE TITLE
Full-Length Play, Comedy / 3w, 4m
Paul Slade Smith
Two cops. Three crooks. Eight doors. Go. In this riotous, lightning-quick farce, there’s some confusion as to who’s in which room, who’s being videotaped, who hired a hitman or why the accountant keeps taking off her clothes.
Two cops. Three crooks. Eight doors. Go. In a cheap motel room, an embezzling mayor is supposed to meet with his female accountant, while in the room next door, two undercover cops wait to catch the meeting on videotape. In this riotous farce, there’s some confusion as to who’s in which room, who’s being videotaped, who has the money, who hired a hit man or why the accountant keeps taking off her clothes.
A laugh-out-loud cocktail of misunderstandings, revelations and unexpected arrivals, Unnecessary Farce creates a crime caper where the long arm of the law leads to rolling in the aisles.
Unnecessary Farce premiered in Lansing, Michigan at the BoarsHead Theater on 27 October 2006, under the direction of Kristine Thatcher.
ERIC SHERIDAN – Male, 30s. A police officer. A bookish, even-keeled guy who finds himself completely out of his element when called upon to express his feelings for a woman, lie to his boss, disguise himself as someone else and stand up to an armed mobster – while not wearing any pants.BILLIE DWYER – Female, 20s-30s. A police officer, Eric’s partner. Excitable and entirely unthreatening, she seemingly lacks every skill necessary for police work, but is as eager to succeed as she seems destined to fail.KAREN BROWN – Female, 30s. An accountant, who has always taken pride in her accountant-like, professional demeanor – until this morning, when she finds herself filled with a sexual hunger and unable to keep things in control.MAYOR MEEKLY – Male, 50s-70s. An Innocent, with a capital i. An affable, gentle fellow. Not too quick on the pick-up, but a sweet, sweet soul.AGENT FRANK – Male, 20s-50s. The head of Security at Town Hall, and, frankly, the wrong man for the job. Though he presents the confident, gruff exterior of a secret service agent (or film noir detective, even), he is frequently (and, at moments of crisis, invariably) a man frightened by his own shadow.TODD – Male, 20s to 50s. Speaks with a pronounced Scottish accent. A professional hit man. Cool, quiet and perceptive when at his best, but more frequently an angry Scotsman – and the angrier he becomes, the thicker his accent gets, until he is entirely indecipherable.MARY MEEKLY – Female, 50s to 70s. The Mayor’s wife. Small in stature and unfailingly sweet, she seems, in every way, the perfect match for her husband.
Two adjoining motel rooms in a big town/small city somewhere in America. Present day.
“A fast and furious farce.” – Playbill
”Nonstop hilarity. Gets us laughing in the show’s first minute.” – Lansing State Journal
”Can a playwright re-invent the comic shtick of in-one-door, innuendo, out-the-other-door? In the case of Unnecessary Farce, the answer is yes. Smith’s play is dazzlingly funny, with one silly bit overlapping the next.” – City Pulse (MI)
“The laugh-out-loud comedy has everything one can hope for in a modern-day farce.” – Between The Lines
Unnecessary Farce – Ottawa Little Theatre Trailer
Paul Slade Smith is a writer and actor based in Brooklyn, New York. His three published plays have collectively had more than 500 productions. Paul’s first play, Unnecessary Farce, has been staged throughout the United States and in Australia, Austria, Canada, Great Britain, ...