1 male, 1 female
Genre: Black Comedy
Duration: 25 to 30 mins
In Smitten find ourselves privy to a disturbing world lurking beneath the mask of normal suburbia.
The play starts somewhat innocently with two people who meet one stormy night, each believing that tonight is the night.
The question is, the night for "what"?
From the start it is clear that delicatessen-owner Peter intends to harm Nichola. He intends to drug her, preserve her, and eat her flesh.
We discover that he's done this before, and he believes this act is the ultimate expression of his love for her, and her love for him.
Peter successfully drugs Nichola by lacing her food and, as she collapses, lays her out on the shop counter — leaving her incapacitated.
Meanwhile, there is a sense that all is not quite as it seems with Nicola, and that she too has a secret to tell...
The audience is thrown a red-herring when Nicola confesses that she has just left her husband. Peter's plans are nearly thrown into disarray when her enraged
husband turns up at the door bitterly howling her name.
As Peter makes his preparations, his body weakens and he too collapses. Nicola then reveals that she has lethally drugged his wine with the intention of
killing him preserving one of his "beautiful artistic hands".
It becomes starkly evident that this unusual couple are truly made for each other!
As they both lie unable to move (but exhilarated by their discovery), they find they have two choices:
- they could call out to Nichola's husband (Gary) to save them both, or
- they could choose to continue the path they have created.
In spite of the "darkness" of its subject matter, the audience will leave this play feeling surprised, exhilarated, a little uneasy and delighted.
When Smitten was first-performed on stage, we were thrilled by the sponteneous eruptions and ripplings of laughter accompanying the entire play.
It's success as a Black Comedy lay in allowing the characters to "be" — actors were encouraged to play their parts truthfully, and from that sprang
the script's natural humour. Nicola and Peter don't believe they are unusual or amusing. It is us, the audience, who decide that — and an idea is always more
powerful when the brain makes its own connections (even if we have "lead them there").
At its heart though, this is a love story about two "outsiders" who somehow, incredibly, have found each other.
This one act play is available in Adobe PDF format, which means you can read it now.
(Click here to download Adobe Reader.)
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