THE STORIES: The Owl Killer. Conditioned by a lifetime of resigned acceptance, Noah Hamilton can only turn against his renegade son, Lamar, who has killed and mutilated a man and is now in hiding. A petty tyrant, who compensates for his own frustrations, Noah rules his family by fear, turning a deaf ear to the pleas of his wife, Emma, and of his daughter, Stella Mae, whom he banished from his home because of her adulterous behavior. Determined to destroy all vestiges of his son's presence, Noah destroys the stuffed owls that Lamar has collected—a symbolic act which also seeks to obliterate the deep-seated guilt he feels over his long-held dislike for his wife and children. Yet penance, as the shattering climax of the play makes powerfully clear, is inevitable, with the ultimate sacrifice demanded to redeem a soul scarred by so many years of compromise and battered pride. (1 man, 2 women.)
Dink's Blues. When Dink comes to visit his friend Fish House Fats, he is already drunk, and it is very late. There at Fish's home "establishment" Dink makes himself too much at home, and soon Fish realizes that Dink is talking to someone not in the room. Dink sinks slowly into a crushing remorse and reveals the belief that he killed the woman he loved in a car crash twenty years ago. She's been coming to him lately, talking with him, calling him, and he knows it's only a matter of time before he joins her. Fish, discovering a brotherly sensation he didn't know he had, tries to keep Dink sane and at the house, feeling he'd do harm to himself if he left. After a while, however, they both know Dink must face his demons alone, and willing to do so, Dink departs, leaving Fish to hope for the best for his friend and with the lesson to pay more attention to the love he finds at home. (2 men, 1 woman.)
