The Puppets' Ire OR How I Learned To Love Barbed Wire - Larry Epstein - Bog

This is a comedy in two acts for 13 actors and s number of non-speaking dancers and extras. It takes about two hours to perform including an intermission. It is written in iambic verse. The script includes stage directions, props and set designs. The play is set in the present but invokes images and themes of the Old West. The story is about a widow (Sally Starr) who owns a ranch left to her by her recently deceased husband (Abe), who also narrates the play as a ghost. The principal protagonists is a grifter (Jehovah Smith) who tries to steal the ranch by stealth. Sally's three puppets, who can talk but only by telling jokes, enlist the town sheriff (Butch Able) to defeat the scam. Meanwhile a Buddhist monk cowboy (Joe de la Paz) comes to town, shares wisdom from the Buddha as comic relief, and is hired by Sally to work at the ranch. The monk persuades Sally and the puppets to go explore for space aliens who were the source of the puppets' enchantment. Smith meets a barmaid (Mabel), with whom he engages in a hilarious, sleazy romance. They are interrupted by Smith's Chicago lawyer (Sophie Bannisher) Who seeks to secure her share of the loot from the ranch scam. But Sophie's jealous husband, Josh, surprises her. Accused on infidelity, Sophie reassures him that his doubts are unfounded and that he should keep an eye on Smith. Thereafter the 8 principals travel to the tree from which the puppets were carved. Beneath the tree they discover a space ship from whom two aliens emerge. The puppets now come alive as the children of the aliens. But Smith gets the drop on the sheriff and threatens to kill everyone. Josh then gets the jump on Smith, incidentally finding gold on the ranch. Sophie then turns her gun on Josh and the others, and instructs Smith to kill everyone again. But before he can do so, the aliens get the drop on them and save the day. An epilogue follows.