Overview

Commissioned for television and revised for the stage, this play introduces us to the future of our race. Everyone lives in cubicles in complete regimentation. The day is broken up into eating (food pills), praying (a kind of pantheistic paean), showing appreciation to those who run the state, working, dreaming, and sleeping. One young couple finally get permission to marry, but are forbidden to have children until two members of their cubicle die. A man whom the system tried to be rid of appears in their death chute. He overloads their oxygen supply, and so he is killed. The wedding takes place, and by means of further pills the couple bed down and go off on a "trip," as do the guests.