Signs of Life (Schenkar)

A bizarre and witty comedy presenting eminent Victorians actual and fictitious as they perform their livesnd experiment on their loved ones. The novelist Henry James rifles the imagination of his powerful sister Alice who stages public fits, keeps a private journal and has a female lover who prefers Henry dead; the drunken impresario P.T. Barnum exhibits his miraculous "Elephant Woman" Jane Merrit who is too like Alice James for anyone's comfort; and the suave and sinister Dr. Sloper is far too interested in the scientific possibilities of the bodies of both ladies. And at the center of the play is a mad tea party at which Dr. Sloper and Henry James continually toast the health of "the ladies" who meet only in the men's stories of them.This is one of the most widely produced experimental comedies of its kind. Published in Signs of Life: 6 Comedies of Menace