A Doubleshot of Dark Comedy in Broad Daylight – Two one-act plays

Come experience the second show of our inaugural season, A Doubleshot of Dark Comedy in Broad Daylight, consisting of two one-act plays, 27 Wagons Full of Cotton by Tennessee Williams and The Golden Fleece by A.R. Gurney. 27 Wagons Full of Cotton, a smoldering comedic drama, served southern style, is about a cotton gin owner who burns down his rival’s enterprise and his rival’s revenge by seducing the man’s young wife. This is written by the master dramatist Tennessee Williams, the author of such classics as The Glass Menagerie, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, and A Streetcar Named Desire. Williams also wrote the screenplay for the film version Baby Doll directed by Elia Kazan, which was nominated for four Academy Awards.

A.R. Gurney’s The Golden Fleece, is a deftly written dark comedy about societal obsession with various forms of hero worship, and displaced self-identities, offering an uncanny insight into the nature and manner in which myths are perpetuated in our culture and personal relationships.

These two plays were chosen partly because they share the common theme of dark comedies dealing with intimate and interpersonal relationships, told from the unique, generational perspective of two distinct, defining eras in American history: that of the World War II generation (1946, when 27 Wagons was written) and the Baby Boom generation that flowered 20 years later in 1966 when The Golden Fleece was authored. These plays are also widely considered to be the best one-acts written by these two legendary playwrights.