The Life and Death of Almost Everybody - Acting Edition

by David Campton

• ISBN13: 9780822206576
• ISBN10: 0822206579
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1971-12-21
• Publisher: DRAMATISTS PLAY SERVICE INC

Summary

THE STORY: As he tidies up an empty stage, the Sweeper is tempted to experiment with the magic power of the theatre-to create life through the exercise of imagination. After a few preliminary tries in summoning up a rabbit and an elephant, the Sweeper plunges ahead and creates a Young Man and a Young Woman. Then, as ever more characters are called for, events begin to go beyond his bewildered control. The most potent forces in human life and society-love, hate, politics, religion-emerge and dominate, and with them the bickering, dissension and decadence which they can engender. Eventually, as more and more creations are demanded of the Sweeper's imagination, a sort of universal Aunt Harriet (whom he had not even thought of) pops up to marshal the diverse forces into a hedonistic and fatefully doomed communal order. Rattled and fearful, the Sweeper struggles to regain control of his delinquent creations, banishing them back to the shadows as the Stage Manager arrives, the theatre returns to silence, and the world outside continues as it will.