YO! Another short play from 10 Short Plays. This one is a radio play called My Client Curley by Norman Corwin. This is a dated play. It is a media commentary. The story is told by a talent agent through what are now called sound bites but were then likely called snipets. I'm not sure. Being a radio play a lot of it is presented aurally. I think the play could work well enough on stage with lots of simple quick changes and a small group of versatile actors. In that way it reminds me of many of the shows I did with the Rough & Tumble Theatre company. We had lots of little scenes presented very quickly with minimal set pieces. That would be the only way to make this highly episodic play work on stage.
The plot: a talent agent finds a young boy Stinky who has trained a caterpillar, Curley, to dance. The agent, taken with the talented bug, signs Stinkey and Curley to a contract. A media blitz ensues which catapult Curley to fame and the agent and Stinky to fortune. Just when Curley lands the coveted and incredibly lucrative deal with Disney, he disappears. Life returns sadly to normal because Curley is believed to be dead, It is then discovered that he has changed into a lovely butterfly and goes off to find his butterfly fortune in a bittersweet finale.
The social satire of the play is very dated and mostly comes from mocking the style of the various magazines, newspapers and media that carry the stories of Curley. Most of these newspapers are defunct, so the jokes fall flat. The ones about the New Yorker and the New York Daily news still work though. There are also sections about nerdy scientists and such.
The play is sweet and silly though, and fun to read.
One more and then onto a different book.
The plot: a talent agent finds a young boy Stinky who has trained a caterpillar, Curley, to dance. The agent, taken with the talented bug, signs Stinkey and Curley to a contract. A media blitz ensues which catapult Curley to fame and the agent and Stinky to fortune. Just when Curley lands the coveted and incredibly lucrative deal with Disney, he disappears. Life returns sadly to normal because Curley is believed to be dead, It is then discovered that he has changed into a lovely butterfly and goes off to find his butterfly fortune in a bittersweet finale.
The social satire of the play is very dated and mostly comes from mocking the style of the various magazines, newspapers and media that carry the stories of Curley. Most of these newspapers are defunct, so the jokes fall flat. The ones about the New Yorker and the New York Daily news still work though. There are also sections about nerdy scientists and such.
The play is sweet and silly though, and fun to read.
One more and then onto a different book.
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