Plays That Aren't Boring

About the Book

Four complete works for the stage and screen.

Surreal Stage Plays

“America the Odd”: son of Odysseus, Telemachus, has himself elected President of a new “America” during his father’s long absence from home. A drunken Abraham Lincoln and George Washington fist-fight over a lost love; the Lone Ranger and Custer form romantic ties; Adolph Hitler seeks redemption through an affair with a 1950s alcoholic housewife; Russian golfers conspire to beat Neil Armstrong to the moon and to help Odysseus recover his kingdom.

“Watermelon”: a number of realities meld around the central themes of personal identity and free will. From the rural American farmlands to slapstick-tragic Watermelon World, characters seem puppets of fate until God discovers her own free will.

Screenplays

“Huck Finn Rides Again”: Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn grow up to take opposite sides in the American Civil War, and it’s a contest between their boyhood friendship and the new ideals of adulthood. Issues of money, power, and racial prejudice drive a powerful wedge between the one-time pals originally created by Mark Twain.

“Lemonjello”: a comic satire in which a young African–American man raised by white parents finds himself stuck between the black and white worlds of contemporary America, where racial prejudice, and a longing for true love and understanding lead Lemonjello into and out of one hilariously tragic situation after another.

About the Author

Dennis Barton was born and raised in Southern Maine. He received his Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing from Goddard College in Plainfield Vermont. He lives with his wife and son and loyal dog in a semi-tropical sea-side town.