Laestrygonians

Book excerpt: Silent film starlet Mary Margaret is alone in her Hollywood bungalow, about to kill herself. A former Shakespearean stage actor, now a drunken silent movie leading man with a bad reputation, calls on her and tries to convince her to face life. In the course of their hilarious conflict, images of the actor's past emerge. His efforts to help Mary Margaret live force him to deal with his own demons and find a way to cope with the terrible secret that eats away at him like the cannibal Laestrygonians in Homer's Odyssey. Funny and rich in character and language, this powerful and unusual love story, part of the Pendragon series of plays, is rich with great audition monologues and scenes. Don Nigro's followers will recognize some of the characters from Chronicles, Anima Mundi, Beast with Two Backs, Autumn Leaves and Dramatis Personae--all plays from his series Pendragon Plays