Note: The film DREAMS FROM A PLANET IN PERIL is based on four plays written by Lee Roscoe. In the article below, Lee discusses the creative inspiration for her writing.
You may love them or hate them, but you have never seen anything like them.
These are a force of nature. These works of art are like the weather, definitely NOT realistic kitchen sink work, nor even magic realism. Instead, they are cartoon, dealing with archetypes, going back to the roots of medieval English Mystery, Morality, Miracle plays of such as the Wakefield Cycle and influenced by the pre-World War II Berlin expressionist George Grosz, who savagely satirized the German proletariat, ruling class, and bourgeoisie during the rise of Nazism.
They are dark humor—manic, nightmares for an age which is toppling over, threatening explosion; swamping human souls and hearts with carnivorous capitalism's greed, political corruption, injustice, climate threats, and divisiveness. The plays prompt us to consider how our whole way of life creates climate and other catastrophes.
But all is not lost, for in one more realistic play, human kindness prevails as a possibility.
In all my plays I want to look at the broader patterns of our societal dysfunction and psychoses, not the same old small kitchen sink drama. I call it aversion therapy drama. We are moved, by what threatens us, to change.
My plays have been seen in New York, Boston, throughout Cape Cod from Hyannis to Provincetown, and occasionally beyond. I look forward to seeing Four Plays for a Planet in Peril reach an even wider audience as the message is vitally important. Most recently, Impossible?, about an American tyrant, premiered online during the pandemic with 1,000 views, and the prize-winning radio drama The Mooncusser's Tale premiered on WOMR FM, Provincetown. These works, as well as Four Plays for a Planet in Peril, have been supported by the Massachusetts Cultural Council. My writing has been praised by such notables as the artistic director of Shakespeare Theatre Company, D.C., the founder of New York’s Living Theater Judith Malina, playwright David Hare, and the late Howard Zinn as well as other theater greats and public intellectuals.
These four plays star several beloved Cape Cod actors: Cleo Zani, Judith Partelow,* Karen McPherson (four time Best Performances, Cape Cod Times), Geof Newton, and Rod Owens. They also feature excellent lesser known actors Tom Wolfson, LeVane Harrington, Olivia Thompson, and playwright Constance Wilkinson, as well as myself (also a Cape Cod Times Best Performances pick, twice).