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Informationen zum Autor Kurt Vonnegut Klappentext "Vonnegut is George Orwell, Dr. Caligari and Flash Gordon compounded into one writer . . . a zany but moral mad scientist."-Time Happy Birthday Wanda June was Kurt Vonnegut's first play, which premiered in New York in 1970 and was then adapted into a film in 1971. It is a darkly humorous and searing examination of the excesses of capitalism, patriotism, toxic masculinity, and American culture in the post-Vietnam War era. Featuring behind-the-scenes photographs from the original stage production, this play captures Vonnegut's brilliantly distinct perspective unlike we have ever seen it before. "A great artist." -The Cincinnati Enquirer ACT ONE SCENE ONE Silence. Pitch blackness. Animal eyes begin to glow in the darkness. Sounds of the jungle climax in animals fighting. A singer is heard singing the first bars of “All God’s Chillun Got Shoes.” Harold, Looseleaf, Penelope, and Woodly stand in a row in the darkness, facing the audience. They are motionless. A city skyline in the early evening materializes outside the windows. The lights come up on the living room of a rich man’s apartment, which is densely furnished with trophies of hunts and wars. There is a front door, a door to the master bedroom suite, and a corridor leading to other bedrooms, the kitchen and so on. PENELOPE How do you do. My name is Penelope Ryan. This is a simple-minded play about men who enjoy killing—and those who don’t. HAROLD I am Harold Ryan, her husband. I have killed perhaps two hundred men in wars of various sorts—as a professional soldier. I have killed thousands of other animals as well—for sport. WOODLY I am Dr. Norbert Woodly—a physician, a healer. I find it disgusting and frightening that a killer should still be a respected member of society. Gentleness must replace violence everywhere, or we are doomed. PENELOPE [To Looseleaf] Would you like to say something about killing, Colonel? LOOSELEAF [Embarrassed] Jesus—I dunno. You know. What the heck. Who knows? PENELOPE Colonel Harper, retired now, dropped an atom bomb on Nagasaki during the Second World War, killing seventy-four thousand people in a flash. LOOSELEAF I dunno, boy. PENELOPE You don’t know? LOOSELEAF It was a bitch. PENELOPE Thank you. [To all] You can leave now. We’ll begin. WOODLY [To the audience, making a peace sign] Peace! [All but penelope exit] PENELOPE [To the audience] This is a tragedy. When it’s done, my face will be as white as the snows of Kilimanjaro. [Hyena laughs] My husband, who kills so much, has been missing for eight years. He disappeared in a light plane over the Amazon Rain Forest, where he hoped to find diamonds as big as cantaloupes. His pilot was Colonel Looseleaf Harper, who dropped the bomb on Nagasaki. [Hyena laughs] I should explain the doorbells in this apartment. They were built by Abercrombie and Fitch. They are actual recordings of animal cries. The back doorbell is a hyena, which you’ve just heard. The front doorbell is a lion’s roar. [To the wings] Would you let them hear it please? [Lion roars] Thank you. [Paul, her twelve-year-old son, enters from corridor, a sensitive, neatly dressed little rich boy] And this is my son, Paul. He was only four years old when his father disappeared. PAUL [Radiantly, sappily] He’s coming back, Mom! He’s the bravest, most wonderful man who ever lived. PENELOPE [To audience] I told you this was a simple-minded play. PAUL Maybe he’ll come back tonight! It’s his birthday. PENELOPE I know. PAUL Stay home tonight! PENELOPE [Ruefully, fo...
