The PlayFinder™

Type of Play
Genre

MenWomenTotal Cast

Dark Comedy Farce Historical Melodrama Mystery Romantic Satire Tragedy Thriller

Four Dogs and a Bone

$13.00
Qty:
Full Length, Comedy
2 men, 2 women
Total Cast: 4, Flexible Set
ISBN-13: 978-0-8222-1400-7


MIN. PERFORMANCE FEE: $105 per performance.
THE STORY: Brenda, a seemingly guileless young actress, takes a meeting with Bradley, a troubled, middle-aged producer, to discuss the film on which they are working. Brenda wants to be a star, she even chants for it! But Collette, the other actress in the film, is in her way, so Brenda must convince Bradley that the film is in serious trouble unless he makes certain changes, one of which is taking out Collette’s part. Bradley, knowing full well that the film is seriously over budget, intimates that he will effect Brenda’s suggestions if she can convince her stepbrother, a giant movie star, to make a cameo appearance in the film, guaranteeing more capitalization and the cachet of success. Meanwhile, Collette has her own agenda: She knows she’s not as young as she once was. She tries to convince Victor, the writer, to alter the film so she can be the heroine, or else, this, his first film, is destined to be lost in art houses or, worse, go directly to video. Victor, a naïve young writer from Off-Off Broadway, doesn’t know how to handle any of this, and his mother just died. He needs to mourn and to drink himself into a stupor before he changes his screenplay. Later, in the make-up trailer, Brenda and Collette find out they’ve been trying to stab the other in the back which leads to the kind of cat fight only actresses do and culminates in a mock-bonding. All hell breaks loose in the final scene when Bradley and Victor confront one another over the state of the film and are interrupted by Brenda and Collette, and all the lies and backbiting are exposed as these four dogs go after their bone.
“If you’re going to write a satire about the movie business at this very late date, it had better be very, very funny. In the case of FOUR DOGS AND A BONE…that criterion is most abundantly met.” —The New York Times.

“…FOUR DOGS AND A BONE [is] the funniest play in town, and the neatest, if kinda affectionate, evisceration of that ol’ dream factory you will encounter in years.” —New York Post.

Included in the collection Four Dogs and a Bone and The Wild Goose.