This is going to be huge. Somehow I just know!
Right, I’ve got a start. Now I just need a few characters, a setting, a plot, some kind of theme… Add a bit of dialogue and away we go!
ACT ONE, SCENE ONE.
HOUSE LIGHTS FADE.
CURTAIN OPENS AND THERE ON STAGE WE SEE…um… IN THE MIDDLE OF THE STAGE WE SEE…
It’s about time for a cup of coffee. Back soon.
(Thanks to Daily Post for a tricky Weekly Photo Challenge.)
STOP PRESS: Thanks too to all those helping with ideas in the comments section. Keep them coming. This has Tony Award written all over it!
![Strawberry field forewer [Explore 2023-05-30 #1]](https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/52938290739_54fc88d448_s.jpg "Strawberry field forewer [Explore 2023-05-30 #1]")
Richard Tulloch's LIFE ON THE ROAD 
I know it is going to be great when you have unlocked that block 😀
Feel free to add a line or two of dialogue to help me get started, Madhu. Same goes for anybody else…
Very creative! 🙂
Well, it will be as soon as I’ve weeded the garden, drunk another cup of coffee, done the shopping, painted the front fence…
Ha Ha….love it!
Bring it on!
Maybe tomorrow. Or Monday.
…in the middle of the stage we see a writer sitting in front of a blank screen, sipping a cup of coffee.
😉
Thanks! What a relief! I think I can take it from here. Maybe he should be ‘slurping’ the coffee to get the show’s first laugh.
Call me old fashioned but I still think that every play should open with the maid dusting a sideboard with a feather-duster. I do like your working title and think you should keep it.
Excellent suggestion, Duncan.
So it goes…
MAID DUSTS THE SIDEBOARD, THEN MOVES CENTRE STAGE TO BRUSH A COBWEB FROM THE AGEING WRITER.
WRITER: (His voice slightly husky from disuse) Um…
HE SLURPS HIS COFFEE.
Best of luck! I’m sure it will be a brilliant play
So far, so good.
There has got to be a brown felt hat in there somewhere?
Nice plot twist, Pete. Now we have…
WRITER: (to Maid) Where the devil is my brown felt hat, Sylvie?
MAID: It’s on your head, Sir.
WRITER: Oh.
HE SLURPS HIS COFFEE AGAIN.
Good work. It’s a nice afternoon. Time to go for a cycle.
I’d love to do that, Pete, but I’m on such a roll with with this play writing.
Writer turns stage left
WRITER: Good Lord, is that mother and great aunt Gerdy storming towards the house? Now I’ll never get any work done.
Sylvie turns to Writer
SYLVIE: Shall I tell cook to put the tea on and hide the knives, sir?
Writer pulls latest paper from typewriter and crumples it into the waste basket.
WRITER: Very good Sylvie.
Excellent plot point, Veronica! Then…
MOTHER ENTERS.
MOTHER: (To writer, stormily) Richard, can I leave great aunt Gerdy with you while I go to my U3A mah jong morning?
WRITER: Absolutely not. Look – she’s still bleeding. Put her in the potting shed.
What a cliffhanger! Please continue!
LOL…good beginning!
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Writer: (to Sylvie) Please bring me another cup of coffee, an idea is starting to brew
Sylvie: (to writer) As soon as I answer the door.
Sylvie: (opening door) Good morning Inspector.
Oh, fabulous, Angeline!
Followed by…
INSPECTOR: Good morning, madam, may I come in? (To writer) Sir, did you know there was a body in your potting shed?
WRITER: Of course it’s in the potting shed. I wouldn’t leave a body on the library carpet on Sylvie’s vacuuming morning.
THERE IS A CRASH OF THUNDER. LIGHTS FLICKER.
INSPECTOR: (Looking out window) Nasty storm out there, Sir, cutting the road and the telephone lines and bringing down all the mobile phone communication antennae for miles around. I shouldn’t be surprised if we were all stuck here in isolated old Midsomer Mansions for the weekend.
THE WRITER SETS HIS BROWN FELT HAT AT A JAUNTY ANGLE.
WRITER: Sylvie, more coffee please.
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What was that Kurt Vonnegut said? Oh yes, And so it goes —
And so it goes.
(Laughed a lot.)
Very funny. I like it.
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“It was a dark and stormy night and I’d know because I’d had too much coffee that day…” How’s that? lol
Thanks heaps, PJB. The ‘dark and stormy night’ is excellent for adding atmosphere and building tension. However did you think of it?
So to continue the drama…
INSPECTOR: (To writer) Sir, I must ask you to stop writing for a moment and gather the household in the drawing room.
WRITER: Why ever do you want to talk to Mother, me, Sylvie, Colonel Mustard, Professor Plum, and the mysterious one-eyed hunchback groom who I can hear out the back chopping kindling with a bloodstained axe?
INSPECTOR: I have reason to believe that a murder has been committed in this vicinity.
WRITER: Surely you don’t suspect any of us, Inspector?
INSPECTOR: Purely a routine investigation, sir. Writers and their households are generally known to be beyond reproach.
See??? that’s award winning stuff write (haha) there 🙂 You should have a cup of coffee to celebrate 🙂