About the Play:

The double-volume Confluence and The Skirmishers contains two one-act dramas by John Bishop. A closely integrated program of two highly imaginative and challenging plays, respectively, the chance meeting of two former professional athletes, and a menacing domestic war game, which explore the male mystique. The plays may be presented separately or as a double bill to create a full evening of entertainment.

Confluence is set where the three rivers in Pennsylvania converge, and so do the lives of three people. Visiting his ambitious young girlfriend, Kathy Milan, who is acting in a summer stock company, Chuck Janola, a former football pro who played for the Pittsburgh Steelers, and now a prosperous businessman, picnics with her on a patch of a rural park, overlooking the confluence of three Pennsylvania rivers. He's 45 and she is a 25-year-old who's about to move on to a new life as an actress. He feels her loss as keenly as he felt the loss of his career. When Kathy goes off to a rehearsal Chuck stays behind, both to contemplate the view and because he knows that the park is also the favourite haunt of Earl Douchette, a former baseball star and Hall of Fame 3rd baseman, now a retired hardware store proprietor living out his final years in a wheelchair. Wary when they first meet, Earl gradually warms to the younger man, who idolized him as a boy, and soon both are swapping tales of their glory days, and commiserating at the wrenching sadness (which only other pros can understand) that comes when time robs them of the unique excellence that set them apart from others – and what comes after the final inning or the last down. Poignant and beautifully understated, the play reverberates with echoes of the past – the future – capturing the nuances of a special world which only the few may know and fully share. (First produced in 1982; Cast: 1 female, 2 male)

What people say:

"…a small, pure gem, its every facet shining. Lean in the writing and beautifully acted and staged, it is stunning." — New York Daily News

"…a delicate and sensitive chamber piece that touchingly reveals the nostalgic pathos of remembered athletic glory." — Variety

The Skirmishers is a highly imaginative play combines the comic and the startling in dealing with the perverse games (largely sexual) that people play. The scene is a small apartment on Manhattan's West Side, the home of Ralph Keptner, a young bachelor and Civil War buff. Reconciled to being alone, and to filling in the hours with an ongoing board game in which the Battle of Gettysburg is repeatedly fought and re-fought, Ralph is pleasantly surprised when Alan, a new neighbour from across the court, stops by to borrow some ice and shortly becomes an enthusiastic participant in the board game. But when Alan's beautiful young wife, Stoni, joins them, a subtle change begins, as drinks are shared and Alan's mood moves from affability to inquisitiveness to provocation. The focus of the action is on sexuality – Alan's conviction that Ralph has been spying on Stoni and himself in their bedroom, and his disquieting desire to watch his apparently compliant wife have sex with another man. The tension is broken when Stoni, aware of Ralph's anguish, berates her husband and sends him packing. But, when they are alone, Ralph, despite his wish that it were not so, is unable to respond to the invitation that Stoni so ardently bestows. (First produced in 1982; Cast: 1 female, 2 male)

What people say:

"An emotionally riveting evening in the theatre is a rare treat, and The Skirmishers is just such a treat." — Show Business

"...filled with tension especially of a sexual variety, and it has a lingering aftertaste." — New York Times

About the Playwright:

John Bishop (1929-2006) was an American playwright and screenwriter. When Marshall W. Mason, founder of the acclaimed Off-Broadway Circle Repertory Company, saw a performance of The Trip Back Down, he invited John Bishop to become a member as both a writer and director. Circle Rep would become his artistic home for nearly 20 years, producing many of his plays. He later founded the Circle West theater company in Los Angeles. He also used his knowledge of and interest in male behaviour and police procedures to do rewrites on the big-budget thrillers Sliver, Primal Fear, Clear and Present Danger, and Beverly Hills Cop III.