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Book details
  • Genre:PERFORMING ARTS
  • SubGenre:Comedy
  • Language:English
  • Pages:192
  • eBook ISBN:9781618423306

SODOM AND TOMORROW

by Derek Strahan

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Overview
God has been visiting Earth in the guise of media magnate Jay Hovey (known to all as JH). He has been gathering evidence about human aptitudes to decide whether or not the species needs to be re-engineered or superseded. As a media mogul He is well placed to gather the necessary data. To finalise His research He has invited a representative group of humans, drawn mostly from the staff of His media empire, to a weekend get-together at His country estate to discuss a theme for a future edition of His lifestyle magazine “Enjoy”. In this project He is being assisted by His lawyer, Luke Fier, alias the Devil, and his maid, Veneria, alias the goddess Venus. When God discloses that the theme under discussion is Sodomy, his guests reveal a wide range of reactions according to their beliefs, sexual preferences and lifestyle choices. Little do these humans know that the outcome of their weekend discussions will decide the fate of the human species. Being human, non-stop talk of sex, sin and sodomy provokes various behaviours. Mike, a young Reverend is revealed to be a closet gay, when he is seduced by James, the young male partner of Elvis, a gay Sales Manager. Tension arises between Eleanor, the Magazine’s lesbian editor and Cutie, her young friend, who shuts herself away for most of the weekend in the library reading up on sexuality in religion – thus empowering herself to ask God some awkward questions. Two mismatched married couples Len and Maggie, and Dan and Virginia are drawn into clumsy experiments with sodomy, and end up switching partners. Tension grows between Lilian, God’s respectable wife and Tamara, his super-model mistress, especially when she reveals she is pregnant – by God. Veneria/Venus, finding herself overworked providing hospitality to all these fractious guests, grows impatient and calls in some extra help. The weekend is gatecrashed by Bacchus and his followers. In the ensuing Bacchanal, God, the Devil and Venus are revealed as deities, to the aston
Description
As our play opens, God has been hard at work in his Heavenly Workshop trying to overcome design flaws in the human form, while simultaneously re-visiting Earth this time in the guise of media magnate Jay Hovey (known to all as JH). He has been gathering evidence about human aptitudes to decide whether or not the species needs to be re-engineered or superseded. As a media mogul He is well placed to gather the necessary data. To finalise His research He has invited a representative group of humans, drawn mostly from the staff of His media empire, to a weekend get-together at His country estate to discuss a theme for a future edition of His lifestyle magazine “Enjoy”. In this project He is being assisted by His lawyer, Luke Fier, alias the Devil, and His maid, Veneria, alias the goddess Venus. When God discloses that the theme under discussion is Sodomy, His guests reveal a wide range of reactions according to their beliefs, sexual preferences and lifestyle choices. Little do these humans know that the outcome of their weekend discussions will decide the fate of the human species. Being human, non-stop talk of sex, sin and sodomy provokes various behaviours. Mike, a young Reverend is revealed to be a closet gay, when he is almost seduced by James, the young male partner of Elvis, a gay Sales Manager, who interrupts their garden tryst just in time. Tension arises between Eleanor, the Magazine’s lesbian editor and Cutie, her young friend, who shuts herself away for most of the weekend in the library reading up on sexuality in religion – thus empowering herself to ask God some awkward questions. Two mismatched married couples Len and Maggie, and Dan and Virginia are drawn into clumsy experiments with sodomy, and end up switching partners. Tension grows between Lilian, God’s respectable wife and Tamara, his super-model mistress, especially when Tamara reveals she is pregnant – by God. Veneria/Venus, finding herself overworked providing hospitality to all these fractious guests, grows impatient and calls in some extra help. The weekend is gate-crashed by Bacchus and his followers. In the ensuing Bacchanal, God, the Devil and Venus are revealed as deities, to the astonishment and consternation of the assembled humans, who become even more concerned when it dawns that the real topic under discussion is not a “life style” issue for a pop magazine, but the survival (or not) of their very own species. The Devil has been enjoying the humans’ consternation and has been avidly contributing to the theological debate that ensures. As a former (now fallen) angel he is well informed on all biblical issues. In particular his commentary on the fall of Sodom has provoked doubts as to the rightness of that act of retribution. To assist the humans in their task of self-assessment, God and the Devil, in a rare instance of collaboration, take the humans on quick tours, first of Hell, then of Heaven, so that they can explore their options. But this only inflames the humans’ confusion and dismay. Now God’s guests turn on God and assail Him with a litany of their complaints, dissatisfactions and disbelief. They begin to doubt that God is who He says He is. Demanding proof of His powers they ask for a transformation, in their anger asking Him to change Himself into something repellent. God obliges by transforming Himself into an alien creature from another world, a Blob, which dies within one minute of its manifestation. Panic! They have killed God! But the Blob disappears and God returns briefly, as He explains, to provide them this time with a body to account for His disappearance. Before finally departing He promises that He will not destroy humanity, not on this occasion. He finds them all much too amusing. The Devil is furious. He had anticipated the Apocalypse and his gaining custody of all human souls at his holiday resort “Lucifer’s Hideaway”, excepting those few souls who prefer to work in the administrative offices of the Universe, namely Hea
About the author
Born May 28 1935, Derek Strahan's early childhood was spent in colonial Malaya until the age of five when he, his mother and sister were evacuated to Perth, Western Australia, just before Singapore fell to the Japanese in February 1942. (Strahan's memories of his "Perth years" motivated his later return to Australia). From 1946 he was based in Northern Ireland receiving education at Campbell College, Belfast and later at Cambridge University from which he graduated in 1956 (BA Cantab. Mod. Lang.) In Sydney, Australia, from 1962 he juggled commissions to write film scores with work as, variously, actor, teacher, film director, scriptwriter and singer/songwriter. He has scripted extensively for TV and film, including 5 years as contract writer for Australia’s first hit TV series “Number 96”. His film music has been heard internationally on over 30 Australian Film & TV documentaries and 3 feature films. Material from these sources is available on CD. During this period he also began writing concert music including numerous chamber works commissioned by distinguished Australian artists. These now range through chamber, solo instrumental, vocal to symphonic works, including his Clarinet Concerto, premiered in Australia, 2002 by Alan Vivian at the Australian National University School of Music and in the US, at San Antonio, Texas in 2017 by Lux Musicae. Recordings of his works are frequently heard on national and fine music radio stations. Strahan does not subscribe to any particular school, style or set of musical dogmas. He is concerned to retain melodic lyricism, and to achieve harmonic liberation through a synthesis of melodic and metric polyphony. Musical material for various opera projects is being developed in smaller scale works, and work is in progress on libretti which Strahan is writing himself. They are being developed firstly as plays (from which libretti will be derived), along with other theater plays that are being published online through BookBaby. Strahan favours comedies and happily acknowledges the influence of 18th century Restoration drama, Moliere, GBShaw, Oscar Wilde, Noel Coward and all writers who value satire and farce as vehicles for exploring the human condition. Three feature films have been produced from his scripts “Leonora” (1985), released on video, cable in US & Europe, and shown on Channel 9 in 1996; “Fantasy” (1990), released internationally on Columbia Tri-Star video, and “Inspector Shanahan Mysteries – Cult of Diana”(1992), shown on Channel 9 in 1996, also “Anatomy of Murder” in 2017. He directed “Leonora” and co-directed “Fantasy” with Geoffrey Brown for Combridge International, and also wrote music for these three features. His 1-Act play “Triple Six” was seen in a student production at Newcastle University in 1996. He has written a considerable body of music for film and concert performance much of which has been released on CD and is frequently broadcast. Theater plays are posted at BookBaby: “Eden In Atlantis” “Takeover” “Bullet-Proof Pyjamas” “Sodom and Tomorrow” “Preface to Meet The Fractals” “Meet The Fractals” “Pleroma” “Everything Else” “Poseidon In Atlantis” “Calypso In Exile” "Atlantis Lost".