Event

Sam

Sam: A ratty, malnourished fringe theatre company in the guise of a modern-day commedia dell'arte troupe meets up with the Devil Herself, and from there it's a fire sale, as Harlequin and his pals retell the History of the World in order to save the soul of Humankind.

Harlequin, the leader of a struggling, underappreciated theatre troupe--boy, who does that sound like!--shoots dice with an Attactive Satan and loses. Satan is about to rake in Harlequin's soul along with those of the rest of the troupe, plus all their assets, when she takes a liking to Harlequin's protege, Scapino. So she agrees to give the troupe one more chance: If they can provide to her the worthiness of humankind, she'll absolve the gambling dept. From there, it's a hilarious--if at times distorted--history of he world--at least the highlights (or, more accurately, the lowlights). An unoriginal comedy about Original Sin.

Napoleon Bonaparte--one of the few historical characters who doesn't appear in this production--was quoted as saying, "Victory has many fathers, but defeat is a bas--'er, well, maybe it's not a good idea to quote Napoleon. Suffice to say, this play has one author, who is perhaps but one of many fathers. Sam is inspired by and draws from--well, in some cases to the point of something bordering on plagiarism--many sources, among them, George Herman's 1963 play A company of Wayward Saints, Stephen Vincent Benet's short story The Devil and Daniel Webster, the 1957 film The Story of Mankind, and Alex Francis Horn's 1976 play Journey to Jerusalem, which the author saw at San Francisco's Theatre of All Possibilities, not to mention history itself, on which the play is loosely based. It is the author's fond hope that this confluence of influnces will be seen as a sum greater than its parts--but if not, well, too damned bad.