Sleeping Dogs

The play begins on the roof of a Manhattan office building where Park, a hard-driving (and dishonest) insurance executive, and Sling, his protégé, are discussing the dire trouble Park has gotten them, and the company, into by selling policies to bogus clients (Judge Crater, Jimmy Hoffa, Amelia Earhart, to name a few) and then pocketing the proceeds after declaring them dead

Sling, who confides that his wife is pregnant and he is suffering from terminal brain cancer, is also the holder of one of Park's worthless policies, an aggregation of problems which he solves by leaping from the roof - only to turn up later in the play as a grisly ghost who communes with Park's dissatisfied suburban wife, Sally

But, for Park, the more pressing concern is to retrieve a collection of incriminating computer discs which are locked up in his sealed office, a maneuver which involves a burnt-out, sleazy private detective and Park's brash, sexy secretary (who is not overly pleased to find her own name on one of Park's phony policies)

Trying to keep one step ahead of the SEC auditors, and the police, Park flirts with the idea of absconding to Argentina, but his fate is ultimately sealed by his vengeful wife, the moribund family dog, Nana (played by an actress in a shaggy sweater) and, in the final essence, by his own consuming ennui as he contemplates the wreckage which greed - and betrayal - have made of his once grandiose dreams

A highly theatrical and bitingly acerbic black comedy, which blends absurdist humor and wild flights of fantasy in its revealing expose of a phenomenon encountered far too often in contemporary society: corporate crime and dishonesty

" it's kooky, canny, tragic and triumphant " ~ 7 Days

" Bell has a way with sharp dialogue and clever setups " ~ BackStage

"Making the everyday an incredible dream, he invites us to wake and imagine saner alternatives" ~ Village Voice