Chicken Salad is a Three Act play that is part of a larger work called Word Salad, a curio
Chicken Salad is a Three Act play that is part of a larger work called Word Salad, a curious mix of sense and non-sense. This neo-dada play extends the focus to meaning and meaninglessness in the style of the Theatre of the Absurd, i.e., comedy, mixed with horrific or tragic images; characters caught in hopeless situations forced to do repetitive or meaningless actions; dialogue full of clichés, wordplay, and nonsense; plots that are cyclical or absurdly expansive; either a parody or dismissal of realism and the concept of the "well-made play".
Chicken Salad, Another Play on Words
John G. Young, M.D.
[at the Theatre of the Absurd Gallery. chicken formation, scan to animus picture on the wall] HALF MAN You go first. HALF WOMAN No, you go first HALF MAN You go first HALF MAN No, you go first GEORGE Neither can go first. They are incapable of independent action. VIDEO OF ANIMUS/ANIMA [spoken words in poem] When the two became one, two were missing. Reaching to her to find himself, lonely, out of touch. Clinging to her as she clings to him, two halves, no wholes, something sure, but not much. HALF WOMAN No, you go first HALF MAN Chicken HALF WOMAN No, you're chicken HALF MAN Just a little. MR LISA Chicken Little? MONA LISA Is your sky falling? MR LISA Afraid to stick your neck out RUSSIAN MAN Don't panic. Just go first. GEORGE I was first. HALFBOY da, da GEORGE I was first. JUAN DE PAREJA Father of his country GEORGE I was the first. BLONDIE The rooster may crow but the hen delivers the goods JUAN DE PAREJA Hot chick GEORGE I was first. MONA LISA We were earlier. At least I was. JUAN DE PAREJA Which came first, the chicken or the egg? BLONDIE Don't count your chickens before they're hatched GEORGE That one laid an egg. JUAN DE PAREJA No, which came first, the chicken or the egg? BLONDIE The chicken. The Judeo-Christian story of creation literally says God created birds, not eggs. GOD That's right RUSSIAN MAN No, it's the egg. Theistic evolution says chicken eggs are how God created chickens. REMBRANDT Samuel Butler says 'A hen is only an egg's way of making another egg.' GOD That's right MR LISA Both answers can't be right GOD That's right JUAN DE PAREJA Over millennia birds and their eggs evolved from an ancestor species into the species we have today GOD That's right HOODED WOMAN Neither came first, since the chicken is the egg and the egg is the chicken-- both came first. MR LISA All the answers can't be right GOD That's right.
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[Act 2 of a three act play, start with act 1] Chicken Salad is a Three Act play that is p
[Act 2 of a three act play, start with act 1] Chicken Salad is a Three Act play that is part of a larger work called Word Salad, a curious mix of sense and non-sense. This play extends the focus to meaning and meaninglessness in the style of the Theatre of the Absurd, i.e., comedy, mixed with horrific or tragic images; characters caught in hopeless situations forced to do repetitive or meaningless actions; dialogue full of clichés, wordplay, and nonsense; plots that are cyclical or absurdly expansive; either a parody or dismissal of realism and the concept of the "well-made play".
ACT 2 REMBRANDT What's left? JUAN DE PAREJA It all began after the BIG Bang. MR LISA What was before the big bang? BLONDIE The void.
[MT] HOODED WOMAN The negative space. [earthworks art negative space clip, carving out the "R" negative space] HALFBOY God REMBRANDT Did god create man or man create god? MONA LISA "In the beginning God . . .," the Old Testament writer's story of the creation begins with a creator. For the Genesis poets this is the central truth: Everything proceeded from the word of God. GEORGE He was first HOODED WOMAN When Job confronted God about the paternal abuse he was getting. He asked Him who He was. God replied: GOD "I am who I am" HALFBOY That's what his Da Da said. JUAN DE PAREJA St. John put it another way, "In the beginning was the Word." The creation was cosmic wordplay.
[put I into world] JUAN DE PAREJA God drops His "l" into the "word" and forms a "world." Everything was a separate act of the power of God. HALFBOY da, da HOODED WOMAN RUSSIAN MAN Yes, yes. It's going to the dogs. BLONDIE You mean doggerel. SOFIE [Flip dog to god] RUSSIAN MAN No, you got it backward, Becket. Get off the bucket Stop waiting for Godot. [flip] HALFBOY da, da RUSSIAN MAN Get off your hobby-horse. HALFBOY Dada, Dada. That is French for hobby-horse. REMBRANDT Speaking of chickens, did the chicken come before man? MONA LISA You want to know the pecking order? JUAN DE PAREJA Man was the last of His creation BLONDIE No, woman was the Ultimate Creation. She came from Adam's Rib. HOODED WOMAN
[aside with video man with red pot]
painter hurls pigment onto canvas,
communes with colors. potter emerges,
throws red pot. his wheel whirls
spins galaxies, stars, planets,
black holes-- thrusts us
from primal soup with 'scriptions
tossed in a bottle too wet to read JUAN DE PAREJA You must act, decide in a meaningless world, then fall.
[spider climbing sink] BLONDIE You climb that mountain, fall back, and climb again. HOODED WOMAN Yet Camus thinks we must be happy BLONDIE Don't cackle if you haven't laid. MONA LISA But there is meaning. Religion fills that void. JUAN DE PAREJA Only if you believe. HOODED WOMAN And which religion do you believe in?
[sophie] REMBRANDT Don't believe the dogma of free verse. Creation ain't free. It's hard work. RUSSIAN MAN Do we find meaning or create it? REMBRANDT I create meaning with my art. [aside create art] HALF WOMAN and HALF MAN We find it in our love. GEORGE But none of it lasts. We eventually fall back down that mountain.
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Added: 1 week ago
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[Act 3 of a three act play, start with act 1] Chicken Salad is a Three Act play that is p
[Act 3 of a three act play, start with act 1] Chicken Salad is a Three Act play that is part of a larger work called Word Salad, a curious mix of sense and non-sense. This play extends the focus to meaning and meaninglessness in the style of the Theatre of the Absurd, i.e., comedy, mixed with horrific or tragic images; characters caught in hopeless situations forced to do repetitive or meaningless actions; dialogue full of clichés, wordplay, and nonsense; plots that are cyclical or absurdly expansive; either a parody or dismissal of realism and the concept of the "well-made play".
ACT 3 MR LISA Why did the chicken cross the road? BLONDIE To fly the coop? GEORGE To get to the other side? JUAN DE PAREJA No, to beat the egg HOODED WOMAN He wanted to be first? MONA LISA I see you are early of late. You used to be behind before, but now you're first at last. GEORGE I was first. BLONDIE No, he was a she. Rosters are he's; hens are she's. HOODED WOMAN She wanted to come first? JUAN DE PAREJA "A hen that struts like a rooster is often invited for dinner" MR LISA No, why did the chicken cross the road? GEORGE To lay an egg? HOODED WOMAN She was playing chicken. BLONDIE
No, she wanted to make an omelet. JUAN DE PAREJA Sounds like the Donner Party. HOODED WOMAN That was no party. BLONDIE It didn't crack up to be one GEORGE She ate her young? RUSSIAN MAN Reminds me of Humpty BLONDIE Humpty who? RUSSIAN MAN Humpty Dumpty, the egghead.
Eggheads do fine If they stay in their place But when stray From their line As if by design. They fall in disgrace With egg on their face. BLONDIE splat! EGG [Frying] So, this is global warming. [aside to Live Green?] RUSSIAN MAN Fear of violence makes us more defensive and violent [Picture on me with an ax in tv] HOODED WOMAN That what happens when you stick your neck out.
[chickens running around with heads cut off] [Picture on me with an ax in tv] REMBRANDT That was no Occam's razor. RUSSIAN MAN The resulting tension and violence causes more fear. HOODED WOMAN That seems circular. [whirlpool] god That's right HALFBOY What's left? RUSSIAN MAN Karl Marx? HOODED WOMAN No, Groucho. In a retort to a club that did not accept minorities, including Jews, Groucho Marx quipped: "I sent the club a wire stating: Please accept my resignation. I don't want to belong to any club that will make an exception to accept me as a member." ANIMUS AND ANIMA Why can't we get along together?
GEORGE We want to be first. RUSSIAN MAN We want to be unique. MR LISA We want to standout GOD That's right ANIMUS AND ANIMA We want to be part of the group.
MONA LISA Birds of a feather flock together. REMBRANDT We want to be a part of the group and we want to be apart from the group. GOD That's right HALFBOY We can't be both separate and together, can we? [echo with foxes, flowers] EPILOGUE REMBRANDT All chickens are the same color in the dark BLONDIE Don't put all your eggs in that basket
[Autumn last scene] RUSSIAN MAN Like the chicken, I wouldn't want to be the first to go into that good night.
GEORGE Sometimes it's not good to be first. MR LISA I'll wait for gaado
[spider dropping] MONA LISA I'll stay with my religious dogma.
[sofie echo] MAN-WOMAN We can't leave each other. We' go together.
HOODED WOMAN No more remarks. HALF-BOY Ma ma RUSSIAN MAN No, no more remarks. BLONDIE Last one to leave, turn out the lights.
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Live Green is a trip through a green Earth Day poster, a poem with improvised piano music,
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Live Green Love Mother Earth
As father sun to mother earth let y/our light shine on unconscious seas, warm but not too warm.
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Live green Love mother earth
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