(flash fiction for the “back story” of a character in Harold and Maude)
The gardener appears in a single scene of the play that serves to show in another way Maude's eccentricities and how she flips Harold. Otherwise, if this were a tragedy, it might have been the comic relief scene. E.g., "Alas, poor Yorick, we have to dig thee up to make room for a shriveled old tree for yonder shriveled old woman, but at least yon friar has a good cask of ale...or be that a cask of good ale... Aye, whatever-r."
The gardener had come over to the States as a Filipina maid and had a sex change operation, then decided to change her/his accent; why not if you are already going through all that fuss? The takeaway from this scene is: Never tangle with the gardener in a cemetery... at least not without a seal for protection (you just have to see the play).
Father Finnegan must be considered the main character of this play as he shows what you have to BE in order to hold these truths to be self evident when surrounded by such mayhem.
The arc (forgive the “theater-speak”) of the story goes by this scene some distance off, maybe a light year or two.
AUTHOR’S NOTE: I would write more but I was hoping to make this into my next novel....so we could proceed if you're ready for a 40 page non-disclosure and copyright agreement that my Philadelphia (that's a town in Turkey) lawyer says I should have.
Meanwhile, Harold and Maude will be performed March 1-25 at the Nevada Theater, Nevada City, CA as a production of Ewing Ventures.
No comments:
Post a Comment