About the Play:

The Reluctant Rogue (or Mother's Day) is a full-length comedy by John Patrick. A very funny and fast-moving play by one of the theatre's masters of comedy. Here the action centres on a "morally challenged" young college professor with multiple student-girlfriends – until he finds himself entrapped in the tangled web of fibs and false promises which his ardour had led him into.

The Reluctant Rogue follows Reed Dolan who would seem to be living in the best of all possible worlds: he is young, attractive and a professor of drama at a small college teeming with pretty coeds anxious for good grades. Reed specializes in inviting his better-looking female students to his apartment to discuss their term papers, after which, if all goes well, the next step is a weekend at his hideaway on nearby Lake Hocapocapoo. The problem is that his amorous exploits are too successful as, much to his consternation, not one but three lovesick coeds descend on him in succession one afternoon – with Reed then struggling hilariously to keep each from discovering the presence of the others. And in (a) the unexpected arrival of an irate father who intends to shoot his daughter's seducer, and (b) the sudden reappearance of a former student who brings along her young son, claiming that Reed is the father, and the stage is set for the wildly funny finale – with Reed's desperately devious (and hilarious) alibis growing ever more outrageous as he attempts to side-step what, for a less resourceful liar, would be pure and inescapable disaster.

The Reluctant Rogue has been performed in regional, college, and community theatre productions.

Cast: 5 female, 2 male, 1 boy

About the Playwright:

John Patrick (1905-1995) was an American playwright and screenwriter. He had several Broadway successes, most notably Teahouse of the August Moon (which was awarded a Pulitzer, a Tony and a New York Drama Critics Circle Award) and The Hasty Heart. His movie scripts are impressive with Three Coins in a Fountain, The Shoes of the Fisherman and The World of Suzie Wong as well as the two plays mentioned above. His plays remain popular with community theatres.