I have a series of scripts in which I have taken classic works — usually by Shakespeare — and rendered them into scripts in which each character speaks a line of just one word.
The opening of “The One Word Macbeth” reads like this:
WITCH ONE: Thunder!
WITCH TWO: Lightning!
WITCH THREE: Rain!
WITCH ONE: Meeting!
WITCH TWO: Who?
WITCH THREE: Us!
WITCH TWO: Time?
WITCH ONE: Sunset!
WITCH TWO: Battle?
WITCH THREE: Finished!
WITCH TWO: Location?
WITCH ONE: Heath!
WITCH TWO: Subject?
WITCH THREE: Macbeth!
WITCH TWO: Ah!
WITCH ONE: Fair!
WITCH TWO: Foul!
WITCH THREE: Foul!
WITCH ONE: Fair!
A prospective director recently read this script (and a few others) and sent this praise:
“I’m pretty sure that One Word Macbeth is one of the funniest things I have read. So much so that I immediately handed it over to my stage manager with the instruction “You need to read this.” Then I just sat and watched her read it and laugh. (She agrees it’s hilarious!) I would LOVE to see the other ones. I just picture how it would play out on stage and it makes me happy. Also, I loved Hamlet Goes to Hollywood. So great!”
I’m hoping to get a production (or two) out of this.
dwayneyancey 