00100	THE RETURN OF THE COUNTESS KATHLEEN
00200	
00300	Synopsis: (the idea for this play is lifted from
00400	"The Countess Kathleen" by J.M. Synge.  In that play
00500	the people are starving, and, to get money to feed them,
00600	the beautiful and virtuous Countess Kathleen undertakes
00700	to sell her soul to the devil to get money to feed them.
00800	She accomplishes this, but the devil is cheated
00900	of her soul when it is declared that her motives are too
01000	good for her to go to hell).
01100	
01200		The people are starving and the Countess K. decides
01300	to get money to feed them by selling her soul to the devil.
01400	She summons the devil, contracts to sell her soul for money,
01500	receives the money, buys the food which is delivered to
01600	the warehouse for distribution.  Someone, however, informs
01700	the press and headlines appear saying, "Countess sells soul
01800	to feed people". Press conference scene with the
01900	Countess and her lawyer.  The devil appears, claims the deal
02000	null and void beause the K. has good motives in 
02100	selling her soul.  Angels appear agreeing.  Scene where angel
02200	pigs and devil pigs jointly keep people from the food.  There is
02300	a difference between the angel pigs and the devil pigs in that
02400	the angel pigs weep and wail when they have to club
02500	the people and utter viruous phrases about how this is for the
02600	higher good, but the result is the same, the people are
02700	clubbed.  
02800	
02900		K. then undertakes to prove that she is a bad person
03000	and, in particular, that her motives for buying the food 
03100	for the people were bad.  Her efforts to do this form the second
03200	act.
03300	
03400		The third act is the hearing at which God and the
03500	devil have to decide whether her motives were bad and whether 
03600	the deal can be allowed to stand.  God resembles a high school
03700	principal and has good reasons justifying all sorts of
03800	petty bureaucracy, and the devil resembles a Mafia lawyer.
03900	There are various ups and downs (to be devised), but the 
04000	scene begins to drag, it gets on K's nerves, and
04100	eventually she cracks and says, "Fuck it".  God zaps her
04200	with a lightning bolt, the effect of which is as
04300	much like napalm as can be simulated (or white phosphorus),
04400	a pit opens in the floor, flames shoot out, K is
04500	pushed into the pit out of which comes as horrible a scream
04600	as can be managed.  
04700	
04800		The expectation that the people will get the food is
04900	then disappointed as God and the devil pass the buck over
05000	who is responsible for what decision.
05100	
05200	Notes: Rock musical or just play?  Grace Slick for K?
05300	How to get play started? Check how Synge
05400	starts. 
05500	
05600	Characters:  K is impulsive, changable, the original idea
05700	is for a publicity stunt. She does not really expect the devil
05800	to appear.  It will never be clear, even to her, what her
05900	motives are, and one of the morals is that it doesn't really
06000	matter that much, since the audience will be pulling for her.
06100	Perhaps flashbacks to her earlier life can be used by both 
06200	sides in trying to prove something about her motives.
06300	
06400	Maybe God and Devil are not depicted as opposing each other
06500	in the hearing.  In this case, K may need a lawyer.  Aha,
06600	her lawyer and the Devil (perhaps represented by a lawyer)
06700	are the antagonists and God is the judge, but he gets to make
06800	speeches from the bench.
06900	
07000	God is a combination of old testament tribal diety and high 
07100	schoool principal.  In him, jealousy is mixed with 
07200	bureaucratic adherence to the regulations that he
07300	has made.  Perhaps, K. or her lawyer is zapped for the
07400	contempt of accusing God of being responsible for the famine in
07500	the first place and not accepting the usual religious justifications
07600	of evil which resemble those of any establishment.
07700	
07800	The devil's first question about anything is, "What's in it for
07900	me."  Perhaps he comes out in the end as not as evil
08000	as God, but that may be too sentimental a conclusion.
08100	It would be a change to depict him as brutal rather than
08200	suave, and obscene in an unpleasant way in his language.  He 
08300	could have a semi-comic, "Let me take her into the back
08400	room, boss" type of henchman.  One variant is that the
08500	henchman takes her (or her lawyer) into the back room, and
08600	she (he) comes out broken.
08700	
08800	Neither K nor her lawyer are prepared for the nasty game their
08900	caper gets them into.  In the initial scene planning,
09000	much of the future is anticipated bravely and
09100	light-heartedly, but when the very events they 
09200	predicted occur, their unpreparedness shows.  Nevertheless,
09300	at least K  shows herself to have some courage and integrity
09400	even though this may be broken in the end.
09500	
09600	Is it possible to separate the point: This is what your God
09700	would be like if he existed" form the point, "The world is
09800	truly in the hands of evil since both God and the Devil
09900	are bad"?  Perhaps, this can be done by letting God's
10000	bureaucracy be defeated in some sense and to some degree or
10100	by having him admit some error and to grow morally
10200	to something more approaching current morality than the 
10300	tribal god morality.  This only makes sense if he is shown
10400	as not all-powerful.  Maybe after K is zapped the lawyer
10500	could shame God into letting the people have the food?
10600	
10700	The lawyer should be of stout character, but not as imaginative
10800	as the beautiful and brilliant K.  Both of them grow some.
10900	Perhaps, after K is zapped, the lawyer should refuse and offered
11000	copout, perhaps by refusing to accept a well-argued justification
11100	of the zapping.
11200	
11300	Certainly, it will not be possible to include all the points
11400	mentioned here.  I think there should be three morals; in any
11500	case, not just one.  The watcher should have his sympathies
11600	slammed around a bit, especially his estimate of K's character
11700	which some of the flashbacks should prove quite tawdry, but
11800	this aspect while true should turn out not so important.
11900	
12000	The devil's goal is to get K's soul for nothing, and God
12100	is essentially an accomplice in this.  Should the hearing be
12200	shown as televised with microphones and TV
12300	cameras or is this too gimmicky.
12400	
12500	Maybe K should have a history, perhaps like that of Janis
12600	Joplin.  Perhaps she climbed on some faces or made progress
12700	on her back.
12800	
12900	If we make the scene essentially modern  American
13000	which will help in making the morals applicable,
13100	how can we make the famine realistic.  Can it be an
13200	Indian or Pakistani famine?  Should there be some other
13300	kind of disaster requiring the devil's aid. No, money is
13400	required.  Maybe she asks for power rather 
13500	than money?  It has to be plausible that the devil would not
13600	realise her motive in asking for it.  What about a nuclear
13700	bomb?  Maybe, we will make the famine American and ignore
13800	a few inconsistencies.  The watcher needs to be told, then,
13900	what inconsistency he is to ignore.  Could this be done baldly
14000	by a narrator or by K speaking out of character?
14100	
14200	Most of these complexities have to be rejected.