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Welfarewell

  • Cat Delaney
  • Full Length Play, Dramatic Comedy, Present Day
  • 1M, 7F
  • ISBN: 9780573698347

Esmerelda Quipp is 80, still of sound mind, but her body is beginning to 'come unglued', as she puts it. Having spent her working life as an actress, age pushing her gradually out of the business, she now faces the fact that her meagre government pension is insufficient to support her, even with her minimal needs.

More information

Description

  • Full Length Play
  • Dramatic Comedy
  • 105 minutes

  • Time Period: Present Day
  • Target Audience: Teen (Age 14 - 18), Senior, Adult
  • Set Requirements: Unit Set/Multiple Settings
  • Cautions: Mild Adult Themes, Smoking

  • Performance Group:
  • Large Stage, Dinner Theatre, Community Theatre, High School/Secondary, Professional Theatre, Reader's Theatre, College Theatre / Student, Senior Theatre

  • Accolades:
  • Winner! 2009 Samuel French Canadian Playwrights Contest
Esmerelda Quipp is 80, still of sound mind, but her body is beginning to 'come unglued', as she puts it. Having spent her working life as an actress, age pushing her gradually out of the business, she now faces the fact that her meager government pension is insufficient to support her, even with her minimal needs.

When she is arrested for attempting to bury her dead cat in her landlord's yard, she finds that there is some sense of community, not to mention free room and board, within the prison system. She devises a plan to get herself sent back to jail; she robs a bank. But a well-meaning public defender gets the charges against her dropped. Esmerelda Quipp is undeterred!

Using money she gets from returning stolen wine bottles to a recycling depot, she buys a toy gun at the local dollar store, and commits armed robbery. Knowing that she will be convicted because she will plead guilty, she assumes that she can spend the rest of her days living free, hanging out with other women, and being fed decently in a women's prison. But the system that has failed her also wants to forgive her because of her age and general health, and the public defender wants to use an insanity plea to get her off.

How will Esmerelda convince the legal system she should be incarcerated, literally, for life?

Characters

  • Casting: 1M, 7F
  • Casting Attributes: Parts for Senior Actors, Expandable casting

  • ESMERELDA QUIPP - 80, a former actress, pensioner. Esmerelda has a refined "stage" English accent.
    H.B. (HONEY BUNCH) HACKETT - 35, police officer.
    VAL - 30, a film actress, posing as a hooker (real name is Rosanna Palermo).
    PENELOPE FARTHINGALE - 45, a hard-drinking hooker, past her best-before date, and lacking a pension plan.
    DOTTIE RAMSBOTTOM - 50, a compulsive shoplifter.
    ALFRED DAVID - 30, lawyer; a weary public defender.
    JENNIFER DOER - 25, a naive social worker/do-gooder.
    GLADYS SYMMINGTON-BUKOVITCH - 22, a rich woman who shot her husband, but he failed to die.
    JUDGE JULIUS - 55, a crusty, caring female.
    MILDRED MCGONIGLE - 60-ish, a bank customer.
    LANDLORD - 40, a beer-bellied bully.
    Three BANK TELLERS and one BANK CUSTOMER
    A CHEF

  • Radio Voices
    KING LEAR, EDGAR, ANNOUNCER, CORDELIA, GLOUSTER
    (all male voices can be read by the male actor with different inflections; CORDELIA should be read by the actor playing VAL)

    • Available Material

    Name Price
    Welfarewell Script Order Now

    Esmerelda Quipp is 80, still of sound mind, but her body is beginning to 'come unglued', as she puts it. Having spent her working life as an actress, age pushing her gradually out of the business, she now faces the fact that her meagre government pension is insufficient to support her, even with her minimal needs. When she is arrested for attempting to bury her dead cat in her landlord's yard, she finds that there is some sense of community, not to mention free room and board, within the prison system. She devises a plan to get herself sent back to jail; she robs a bank. But a well-meaning public defender gets the charges against her dropped. Esmerelda Quipp is undeterred! Using money she gets from returning stolen wine bottles to a recycling depot, she buys a toy gun at the local dollar store, and commits armed robbery. Knowing that she will be convicted because she will plead guilty, she assumes that she can spend the rest of her days living free, hanging out with other women, and being fed decently in a women's prison. But the system that has failed her also wants to forgive her because of her age and general health, and the public defender wants to use an insanity plea to get her off. How will Esmerelda convince the legal system she should be incarcerated, literally, for life?

    		$24.95

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