About the Play:

Answers is a collection of short plays by Ernest Thompson, the author of On Golden Pond. A trio of delightful, imaginative comedies, each involving a surprise visitor. The three plays together make a cohesive, well-balanced evening, but they can be produced separately with equal effectiveness.

In the first, A Good Time, a young New York career woman gets an unexpected visit from the California highway patrolman who stopped her for speeding several years earlier. In return for not giving her a ticket she promised to show him a "good time" if he ever came to New York – and he is here to collect. However, things don't turn out quite as she fears. (Cast: 1 female, 1 male)

In the second, The Constituent, a tough-minded, foul-mouthed curmudgeon, who likes to write insulting letters to public figures, especially a certain United States Senator from Maine, suddenly finds himself face-to-face with his long-time nemesis. The two cantankerous codgers have a go at each other, only to find much in common – but then the fur begins to fly again, with hilarious results. (Cast: 2 male)

Lastly, in Twinkle, Twinkle, a bored housewife writes a provocative fan letter to her favourite television soap opera star as a lark, only to have him show up at her modest home on her husband's bowling night. Once she (and her husband) recover from their shock (and her husband goes bowling) their relationship takes on a hilarious see-saw nature, with the possibility of promised delights left in the balance. (Cast: 1 female, 2 male)

Ernest Thompson began writing short plays in 1975, including one-act plays collectively called Answers. It was presented in 1982 at the Burt Reynolds Dinner Theatre in Jupiter, Florida, with Burt Reynolds himself in the cast along with Stockard Channing, Charles Durning and Ned Beatty, and Parker Stevenson and his soon-to-be wife, a pre-Cheers Kirstie Alley.

About the Playwright:

Ernest Thompson is an American writer, actor, and director. He is known as the author of the play On Golden Pond, which he wrote at the age of twenty-eight. It went on to become a hit 1981 film starring Katharine Hepburn and Henry Fonda. Ernest Thompson won the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay in 1982, as well as awards from the Golden Globes and the Writers Guild of America.