Cats, Cooks and Chaos

Three Stories by Saki
Adapted by Burton Bumgarner
Eldridge Plays and Musicals

Author H.H. Munro, also known as Saki, wrote about upperclass English society before the first World War and satirized its foibles with dark humor and acid wit. Playwright Burton Bumgarner has updated and Americanized three of Saki's stories, dramatizing their impish ironies, exquisite mischief, and O'Henry-like twist endings. All three stories, which are played before one basic living room set, may be presented for a full evening's entertainment, or each can be presented separately. (See individual listings in the One-Act section.) "The Schartz-Metterklume Method" (with doubling 3 m, 7 w) Rich parents and their four spoiled children finally meet their match with their latest "governess," Lady Carlotta, who has an unusual outlook on learning and life. "The Blind Spot" (6 m, 5 w, 1 flexible, doubling possible) A young woman unearths a family secret in the letters of her dead uncle. The letters paint a portrait of him as a despicable man with an uncommonly good cook and further suggest that his "accidental" death was an act of vengeance. "Tobermory" (4 m, 6 w, 1 flexible) A brilliant cat, having learned to speak English, dazzles a party of scientists and then shocks them by exposing their hypocrisy.