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Cages (contains Snowangels and Epiphany)

Cages (contains Snowangels and Epiphany)
Your Price: $18.95 CDN
Author: Lewis John Carlino
Publisher: Dramatists Play Service (cover may change)
Format: Softcover
# of Pages: 63
Pub. Date: 1964
ISBN-10: 0822201747
ISBN-13: 9780822201748

About the Play:

Snowangels has long been a favourite of acting teachers for Female Monologues and Female/Male Scenes.

The volume Cages contains a pair of one-act dramas by Lewis John Carlino. This dark duo of one-act plays has just two characters, a man and a woman, with both sets battling for supremacy. The battles end differently, and yet they seem to come to the same conclusion. Snowangels and Epiphany may be performed together as an evening of entertainment.

Snowangels is about a lonely man who hires a prostitute for a one-night fantasy. Tormented by the memories of a past love, John comes to Connie, a hard-bitten prostitute, to get her to reenact certain scenes that have etched themselves in his mind and that have become the symbol for all that was ethereal and beautiful in his life. He makes her wear certain clothing. He applies make up to her face, trying to get her to resemble the girl he lost. He feverishly constructs a scene where he first met this girl, in a museum. The action builds until he almost feels the moment is being relived, that Connie is really the other girl. At this moment Connie shatters his illusion by screaming, "I'm not her! I'm me! I'm me!" Shocked, John starts to leave, saying he is sorry, that he only wanted to feel the affection of those lost moments. Connie, shaken, asks him if he wants affection, what does he give in return? Quietly, she tells John what she imagines in this dirty little room while strangers use her. She tells her tale simply. When she finishes speaking, John is ashamed and has learned a simple lesson: that he must give to get, that he cannot erase the identity of another human being to suit his own needs. The play ends with John coming to her, with him becoming what he came to ask her to be. Snowangels has become a favourite scene study vehicle in acting classes and workshops because of its two-characters-one-set simplicity and its showpiece female role. (Cast: 1 female, 1 male)

Epiphany is about a man who has failed so miserably as a man, that he decides to become a chicken, a rooster. His wife, a successful advertising executive, taunts him with memories of his failures, memories that include a homosexual experience she witnessed between her husband and another man. Years have gone by since this occurrence and her husband, driven by his inability to assume the dominating role and by his wife's constant undercutting and reminders of the incident, plans horrible revenge. The play is a mixture of savage humor that gradually turns to horror as the man, donning a steel beak, begins his metamorphosis, his epiphany into a rooster, so that he may completely rule. He locks the bedroom door and then proceeds to assemble a roost on which he perches and gives orders. Just as all seems to be going in his favor, he has a grotesque demise. He ventures a rooster crow, but does not quite make it. Suddenly, his body contorts. He screams in agony. An egg drops from under him. His wife comforts him by saying it's really what he always wanted. The play ends in a sort of Gothic horror as his wife tears off his paper coxcomb and accepts him as her little "Henny Penny." (Cast: 1 female, 1 male)

Snowangel and Epiphany were originally produced in 1963 as part of a double bill under the joint title of Cages, and enjoyed an enormously successful off-Broadway run at the New York Playhouse.

What people say:

"Fire a salute! Lewis John Carlino is a writer of intensity and power." — New York Times

"Off-Broadway has not produced a more wildly inventive mind this season." — New York World-Telegram & Sun

"Lewis John Carlino makes the theater the living and glowing thing it was meant to be." — Cue Magazine

"Highly original works fresh and unusual." — New York Daily News

"Cages is a smart production, one that can make audiences laugh and, at the same time, feel the pain and anger of Carlino's bizarre characters. It's prime theater." — Gainsville Sun

About the Playwright:

Lewis John Carlino (1932-2020) was an American director, screenwriter, and playwright. He first gained attention as a novelist and off-Broadway playwright. He worked as a director and screenwriter on a number of movies during a career which has spanned five decades. He was nominated for many awards, including the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay and is best known as the writer and director of The Great Santini that starred Robert Duvall as a bullying U.S. Marine Corps pilot.

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