THE STORY: The action of the play takes place in the butler’s pantry of Fay Leland’s lavish seafront estate on Long Island. Parker, the flamboyant son of Fay’s friend and neighbor, Craig (whose wife ran off with Fay’s husband), has inveigled a job for his cash-poor friend, Wilson, as Fay’s cook and butler—which is part of Parker’s scheme to convince the pill-popping Fay that Craig is secretly in love with her. Craig is planning to sell his property and business and retire to Switzerland, and Parker’s thought is that if he can send Fay off with him he will inherit her mansion and, at last, be able to establish himself as a “celebrity” in his own right. But problems crop up when it develops that Wilson can’t cook; the Polish maid, Maya, goes “on strike"; and Parker alienates his father’s black mistress by showing up at the second act costume party (where everything comes to a riotous conclusion) masquerading as Josephine Baker. Although Parker is prepared to commit murder, if necessary, it is all wasted on the other-worldly Fay, who drifts through potential catastrophe unscathed, and on his dandified father, whose avowed intention (subsequently fulfilled) is to send Parker off to a mental hospital—leaving Parker’s ambitious plans in a shambles and the lives of the others safely preserved in their idleness and inanity.
A brilliantly executed black comedy which employs absurdist theatricality to launch its satiric barbs against the foibles and follies of the privileged classes.
“…a sendup of the high comedies of the twenties and thirties…” —The New Yorker.
“It is Kondoleon’s particular gift to bridge from a recognizable world to the horrific, Felliniesque circus inside it.” —Village Voice.
“…a searingly witty indictment of the idle rich and their sycophants.” —Variety.
“Glib, witty and outrageous…” —BackStage.
