Uncle Lumpy Comes to Visit & No Time

Lou is off on a business trip but his wife, Marion, is at home, and invites Philip to stay for brunch, then dinner, then the night. As the two discuss the absent Lou it is soon evident that they are both unhappy and unfulfilled and that Lou (who is apparently a thoroughly nasty, selfish man) is responsible for much of their misery

In a series of blackouts we see Philip growing ever closer to Marion and his niece Jennifer (who is spoken to but never seen) until, eventually, he has replaced his brother in the household - and the bedroom

But then Marion announces that Lou is coming home and Philip must go, which reluctantly he agrees to do, with a promise to return on Jennifer's birthday. However, when he comes back, he finds a changed Marion who is (a) unwilling to resume their relationship and (b) pregnant

Philip is shattered by this news, but Marion, secure in the knowledge that this will be her child, and not Lou's, is buoyant. In the final essence she too has used "Uncle Lumpy" for her own purposes, and as he trudges sadly off, we are aware that, for him, this unhappy pattern will probably never change

A very funny and yet subtly disturbing play which uses deft theatricality to illuminate the plight of an embittered wife and her equally unhappy brother-in-law, who find both solace - and loss - in each other's company

First presented by the Manhattan Punch Line Theatre, as part of its Festival of One-Act Plays

No Time Randolph Hack meat, fresh out of law school, is already a partner in his father's law firm. He is also about to be married to the sexy Susan; he is buying a twelve-bedroom house; and one by one his partners begin to die off - moving him up a step each time

But, as we learn in a series of brief and very funny vignettes, there are problems, too. His wife leaves him (and then comes back); his house burns down (he buys another); and his brother (the jealous one) overdoses on pool table cleaner

As the pace of the play quickens, Randy is besieged by all manner of intruders, from a psychiatrist to a crooked investment counselor, not to mention a curvaceous employee who seduces, and then blackmails, him

But the mad whirl suddenly stops when his doctor advises Randy (as he is looking over his retirement options) that he has terminal cancer - leaving his widow to weep - and then smile - at the vagaries of this odd thing called life

First presented at the Philadelphia Festival for New Plays, this brilliantly inventive play uses surrealistic techniques to compress the dazzling rise and fall of a Yuppie-like young lawyer who would seem to "have it all" in prospect