MERE MORTALS: Six One-Act Comedies

by Ives, David

Act One: In FOREPLAY OR: THE ART OF THE FUGUE, we find Chuck, a self-styled Don Juan, and his girlfriend on a date at the miniature golf course. When they move to the second hole, a slightly older Chuck II appears with another date. Finally, Chuck III, now in his late thirties, arrives with a young date. His latest date doesn’t get his jokes, and worse, she’s beating him at golf. (3 men, 3 women.) MERE MORTALS eavesdrops on a lunch hour on a girder 50 stories over the street, as three construction workers share increasingly amazing secrets of their past. (3 men.) In TIME FLIES, two lonely but sweet young mayflies meet at a pond and really hit it off. Unfortunately, Horace and May watch a nature program on this first night out and discover they have a lifespan of only one day—and their lives are half over. (2 men, 1 woman.) Act Two: SPEED-THE-PLAY is a crash-course send-up of David Mamet, presenting the complete works of the master of scatological dialogue in just under eight, male-bonding minutes. (3 men, 3 women.) In DR. FRITZ, Vaudeville reigns as an American tourist in pain seeks medical help from a wacky souvenir seller named Maria who channels an even wackier German surgeon named Dr. Ringsvwandl. The comedy steps up when the doctor recommends an operation. (1 man, 1 woman.) DEGAS C’EST MOI. A man wakes up one morning and decides to be the French artist Degas. The best place to do that is in New York City where he encounters all that makes great art. (3 men, 3 women, flexible casting).