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April Fish and The Wooing of Lady Sunday

$13.00
Qty:
One Acts, Two Plays in One Volume
Interior
ISBN-13: 978-0-8222-0062-8


MIN. PERFORMANCE FEE: $105 per performance when produced together; $55 for APRIL FISH and $40 for THE WOOING OF LADY SUNDAY.
THE STORIES: April Fish. The scene is in a tenement in New York's "Little Italy," the home of the family of Assunta and Fortunato. It so happens that there is an enormous hole in their bathroom wall, and Assunta has summoned the detested Pietro (an excellent plasterer) to fix it—but Fortunato has just spent all of the family's money on a magnificent gold tooth. The answer: "April Fish" —a traditional bit of Italian trickery in which the word is passed that Fortunato has died, and he is suitably laid out, amidst mourners and candles, when Pietro arrives. Certainly, in such a situation, no one would be so heartless to speak of money! Unfortunately the ruse fails to work quite as well as hoped, and what with the rising hubbub of assembled neighbors and friends, the situation grows increasingly frantic—and hilarious—until the good Padre Peggio arrives to set matters right and give the perpetrators their comeuppance. (6 men, 5 women.)

The Wooing of Lady Sunday. The action takes place in a small village in southern Italy, in the home of the gruff, lazy Briglio and his long-suffering wife, Concetta—whose unmarried sister, Domenica, has become, apparently, a permanent (and barely tolerated) addition to the family. However there is hope for the future, as the wife of the mayor, Don Carluccio Benvenuto, has died, and Domenica is the only eligible replacement in the town. Inevitably the upright Don Carluccio comes calling (with his brood of eight motherless children), but the strong-willed Domenica does not capitulate—at least not immediately. How she deals with this sudden appearance of "romance" in her hitherto barren life is both touching and funny, and filled with the innate warmth and wisdom so characteristic of life "Italian style." (2 men, 2 women, bits for 3 boys, 5 girls.)