Little Brother Little Sister / Out of the Flying Pan

Little Brother: Little Sister. In the deep shelter where they escaped from the

last spasm of global destruction, Sir and Madam (a teenage brother and sister)

experiment with the fi rst gropings of love, while Cook, their aged family

servant and symbol of timeless authority, snores in her chair. Awakening

suddenly she orders them apart, threatening to grind them up for "rissoles" if

they don't behave. But the feelings stirring within them cannot be imprisoned

indefinitely. When Cook falls asleep again Sir and Madam resolve to fi nd the

door leading outside, away from the restrictions of a life imposed by others and

shaped by their failures. As they search for the handle Cook mumbles in her

sleep of the old days and of forgotten loves, and when she rouses she speaks to

the young people of how it used to be-and can never be again. Then she

chastises them for trying to leave and resolves that one of them must be

sacrificed if security is to be maintained. But then Sir, acting as though he were

Cook's long-lost lover, pleads his affection-and suddenly he is (to her) what he

pretends to be. Cook falls eagerly into his arms and, just as abruptly, to her

death. She has gone "outside." Sir and Madam then turn at last towards the

door, with only a vague feeling of hopefulness to guide their steps into the

unknown that lies before them. (2 men, 1 woman or 1 man, 2 women.)

Out of the Flying Pan. Amid fanfares and popping fl ash bulbs, two diplomats

(A and B) meet to engage in a bout of international bargaining. Their rapidfi

re dialogue, while composed largely of outlandish doubletalk and windy

pronouncements, has chilly overtones of the "real thing," as do their inevitable

disagreement and estrangement. Angrily they tear apart the treaty they have

signed, and turn their backs on one another. Sirens wail, guns rattle, and then

a cosmic-sized explosion-followed by a sudden, heavy silence. In the stillness

B stalks off the stage, but then a bird twitters, gentle music plays, and A begins

to move to its rhythm, retrieving the pieces of the torn treaty. Another moment

passes, the sound of an approaching airplane, and then B reappears, dispatch

case at the ready. They shake hands, patter again through the trite preliminaries,

and then launch into still another round of pretentious gibberish, while

mankind holds its collective breath at the outcome. (2 men.)