Synopsis
Anteroom
Published by Dramatists Play Service
3 Male 4 Female
Parker, the flamboyant son of Fay's friend and neighbor, Craig (whose wife ran off with Fay's husband), has inveigled a job for his cash-poor friend, Wilson, as Fay's cook and butler - which is part of Parker's scheme to convince the pill-popping Fay that Craig is secretly in love with her
Craig is planning to sell his property and business and retire to Switzerland, and Parker's thought is that if he can send Fay off with him he will inherit her mansion and, at last, be able to establish himself as a "celebrity" in his own right
But problems crop up when it develops that Wilson can't cook; the Polish maid, Maya, goes "on strike"; and Parker alienates his father's black mistress by showing up at the second act costume party masquerading as Josephine Baker
Although Parker is prepared to commit murder, if necessary, it is all wasted on the other - worldly Fay, who drifts through potential catastrophe unscathed, and on his dandified father, whose avowed intention is to send Parker off to a mental hospital!
A brilliantly executed black comedy which employs absurdist theatricality to launch its satiric barbs against the foibles and follies of the privileged classes. First produced by New York's Playwrights Horizons "a sendup of the high comedies of the twenties and thirties " - The New Yorker
" a searingly witty indictment of the idle rich and their sycophants" - Variety