ISBN:1-873130-37-6 Internet copies at £7 Performance Rights negotiable
Another African play by this Ugandan lawyer who shows us the reality of what happens when the West think they are bringing about democracy in an African country but the prime mover for the latter to comply is simply to receive financial aid. Here we see a female professor trying to get herself elected and democracy working on a different level. She fights against the gullibilty of voters who are willing to give up their vote for the promise of more salt but in the end a hollow victory is achieved for the one who is the "winner"
ISBN 1872758231 Books £7 Performance Rights £40 pp
A heart-warming story set in the American Dustbowl in 1929. We see Joe Macdonald, a poor farmer struggling to get by with his family. He owes rent to the local bullying bigwig, Cornelius Spenk, whose son plays with Joe's son, Billy. One day they find a black hobo hiding in the woodshed and Joe is about to shoot him when they find that he has no tongue and they take him in. Joe's daugher, Becky, is in need of another room and when Joe brings in some timber for building, Spenk vetoes it. The youngest boy, Peewee, is constantly climbing a nearby tree to try and get a glimpse of the Promised Land of California and one day he falls, causing himself serious injury. The boy is wheelchair-bound and Joe is distraught, so he has an idea of building a simple platform as a tree house to encourage Peewee to get better. The idea doesn't work and Abe, the hobo, shows Joe a quote from the bible, "My Father's house has many rooms". Joe gets the idea and with Abe's help they build a tree house with many rooms, the like of which no-one has ever seen. This time Peewee sees it and smiles - it seems he's going to get better and folk start coming from far and wide to see it. Spenk then arrives and tells Joe that he wants to turn the tree house into a listed company on Wall Street. However when Becky is taken to town by Abe to research her speech for the forthcoming Speaking Competition, there is trouble and Abe is accused of a sexual assault and arrested. The family visit him in jail on their way to the competition, where he gives Joe a note. In the competition Becky speaks out against the history of black lynchings and while she's doing this Joe reads the note telling how Abe lost his tongue in a past race riot. They then hear that Abe has been taken from his cell by a lynch mob and Joe then decides its time to to burn his boats and speak out to the asembled townsfolk.. Having spoken out he drags the family home and grabs the axe to begin chopping down the tree house, telling them to start packing. They ask why and where they're going and he shouts in reply, "California!" This is the time of the Wall Street Crash.
We see a young female traffic warden turning up for her first day at work and one by one her workmates arrive. They introduce themselves and begin to demonstrate what a weird job they have to do. One of their number isn't quite with it and spends most of her time feeding the pigeons. In the second act they are told to stay in for an interview for Senior Warden so they fill the time by holding a birthday party for the pigeon-lover and give her impromptu presents. At the end a box is left over which someone gives to her but it contains something that will end her over the edge ...
