Patiot Act: A Reality Show

by Charles Duncombe

Overview

Winner of the Fratti/Newman Award for political playwriting.

A million dollars to the most patriotic man or woman in America—and America does the voting! Do you love your country? Do you stand united? Do you support our troops? Do you have what it takes to make it to the final round?

This Orwellian drama takes an unsuspecting, far-right "patriot" and plunges him into the middle of an anti-terrorist nightmare. He thinks he's auditioning for a new reality show on Fox. But what's really going on? He reports to a testing center for his final casting interview. There are a lot of forms to fill out. Then there’s his psychological profile, his medical testing, and his background check. The questions never seem to stop. Some of them seem awfully personal, some of them almost seem like an invasion of privacy. Don’t worry, his interviewers assure him. It’s all part of the process. All part of getting selected for the most exciting new reality show in America…

Product Details

BN ID:	2940012816245
Publisher:	City Garage Books
Publication date:	05/30/2011
Series:	City Garage Plays , #1
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
File size:	229 KB

About the Author

Charles Duncombe is the author of the City Garage texts "Atrocities" (2000), "Cinema Stories: Ceremonies of Unendurable Bondage" (2002), "Oedipustext/LA" (2003) and "Patriot Act: A Reality Show" (2004). He also wrote the company’s adaptations of Heiner Müller: "Medeatext;Los Angeles/Despoiled Shore" (2000); "Frederick of Prussia/George W’s Dream of Sleep" (2001); and "The Mission (Accomplished)" (2008). All three were nominated for the LA Weekly’s “Best Adaptation” award, as was his contemporary version of The Trojan Women: LA/Dafur Dreamscape in 2010.His English-language versions (with Frederique Michel) of Moliere’s "The Bourgeois Gentilhomme"(2009), "The School For Wives"(2010), and "The Marriage of Fiagro" were nominated for a total of seven LA Weekly Theatre Awards, including Best Translation (which "Figaro" won). "Patriot Act" won the 2004 Fratti-Newman Award for Political Playwriting. He is also the author of the short story collection Ceremonies of Unendurable Bondage and Other Stories. He lives in Los Angeles. He lives in Los Angeles.

Editorial Reviews

“Patriot Act is a very simple piece of political theater but not a simplistic one. Like the would-be contestant, we don’t realize until it’s too late that each of the man’s answers to his interviewers’ questions has clicked a lock on his freedom. The frightening thing is that no matter what replies the man (or we) supplies, the judges are likely to interpret them as unreliable and persuade their prisoner that even if he were innocent of any suspected wrongdoing

Stephen Mikulan