THE STORY: The time is 1968, in a college dorm room occupied by two graduating seniors, Bed Davidson and Woody. Woody is trying to finish a term paper while his roommate naps, and they are both frustrated by the arrival of their manic friend, Badger, who wants to “play"—to embark on one of the wildly imaginative flights of make-believe that he and Woody have concocted. Badger prods Woody into riffing on several of their running gags—Woody’s a talking panda, Ben Davidson has an imaginary girlfriend—but things really get strange when Tim Esperanza, a black drop-out, comes by and agrees to let Woody hypnotize him. The guys have fun with Esperanza in his trance (to the disgust of Paula, Badger’s disapproving girlfriend) until Woody finds that he can’t get Esperanza back to reality. Esperanza does regain consciousness, admitting that he’s been playing a joke of his own, but the sudden fear has left its mark and underscored the day’s poignance. The antic joys of college will soon be lost and, considering the disjointed world that awaits, will surely never be regained.
Filled with the zany, wildly offbeat humor characteristic of its author, this long one-act play is also affecting and revealing as it uses the high jinks of a group of college seniors to point up their underlying concern with more serious subjects, from impending marriage to the ongoing nightmare of Vietnam.
