Sad Laughter

Sad Laughter

a play in two acts

by Charles Deemer

First performed at Clark College in Vancouver, Washington, on April 2, 1999. Directed by Charles Deemer. A different, three-act version under the title The Comedian In Spite of Himself was first performed at the New Rose Theatre on May 10, 1984. Directed by Gary O'Brien.

THE CAST:

Moliere, the great French playwright

Armande, his young wife, an actress

Madeleine, his former mistress, an actress

La Grange, Moliere's friend and an actor, the narrator, who plays many roles

THE SET:

A unit set, for quick changes of place.

THE TIME AND PLACE:

Paris and elsewhere, 1658-1673

(Excerpts from Moliere's work in verse translations by Richard Wilbur. Used with permission. Adaptations from Moliere's work in prose by Charles Deemer.)

(ACTOR'S NOTE: Moliere has a slight stutter when he is upset. This is only occasionally noted in the text but the actor should be aware of this and use it to effect.)

ACT ONE

prologue/

(A DARK STAGE: and we hear the voice of LA GRANGE in the darkness:)

LA GRANGE (V.O.): In darkness is the proper place to start

Our play, for darkness holds the human heart

In profound mystery. Who can look

Into the heart of man and find the hook

On which to hang a life? —Naked, stark:

A piece of meat called man. But the mark

Of man is not so easily drawn.

(And a SPOT comes up on LA GRANGE on stage, as narrator.)

LA GRANGE: —Moliere:

Jean-Baptiste Poquelin, my friend: but where

To start? He suffered, yes; so do we all.

He laughed. He . . . laughed. I think he'd be appalled

To hear me say he cried. I saw him once

And, catching him, I saw him play the dunce

He knew so well on stage. It was as if

No pain, no grief, no agony or rift

Was worth a tear except to shed on stage

For all to see, in this way to assuage

What, privately, he could not share. This man

I loved, who taught me all I understand

About the stage, I hardly knew. Begin

In darkness, then:

(And the LIGHTS begin a SLOW FADE:)

LA GRANGE: What clarity we win

Will rise between the darkness we see now

And the certain night that gets us anyhow.

(It is DARK.)

LA GRANGE (V.O.): Begin in darkness:

sixteen sixty-three:

In Paris, two players rehearse a scene.

Read the play. 

*

This play has a complex history. Originally commissioned by the New Rose Theatre during my time as resident playwright, the play came with specific requirements: I was to tell the story of the relationship between Moliere and the king using only four actors (and I knew who they were). Since I had an epic story to tell, this restriction led to the narrator who plays many roles.

I began the play while house sitting in Bend. However, this was during the Rajneesh years and the Bend papers were full of news. I got side-tracked and quickly wrote CHRISTMAS AT THE JUNIPER TAVERN, which upset my artistic director. He didn't want me distracted. However, he ended up loving Xmas and also loving the Moliere play, which originally had the title, from the director, THE COMEDIAN IN SPITE OF HIMSELF.

There was a problem. I wasn't happy with my epic 3-act play, even though director and company loved it. Since playwrights, unlike screenwriters, have POWER, we made a deal. I could keep rewriting during the run! Consequently six different versions played on six consecutive weeks, as I kept cutting the play.

The run was very successful. A NY actress saw it, got the script, passed it on to her buddy Harold Prince, who wrote me a fan letter but was too busy (on P of Opera, it turns out), to get involved. But I shelved the play for years afterwards.

Taking it out again, I rewrote it as the two act SAD LAUGHTER that is here. I also adapted it to screen, and my agent thought the screenplay version was the best screenplay he'd ever read, though he couldn't sell it. Shades of Dead Poets Society, without Robin Williams. Yet another near miss in my career.

It is definitely one of my better plays and probably the best in terms of technical matters. Very theatrical. I learned theatrics from Dean Regenos, my MFA mentor, and later from a retired Yale Drama professor, who directed me in several plays.

This play deserves a first rate production, by a company with a budget.

Check out the book.