The Year of the Tiger
by Robert Joseph Ahola
#2005-0014ISBN #1-933159-18-9
(See also Robert Joseph Ahola's Pavlov's
Cats, High Tea With His Excellency and
Dr. Max Love)
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Cast Requirements:
 | TOM DEVLIN: A “retired” industrialist, At 60, he is a
recent cancer survivor (an encounter which netted him the removal of a lung). A former
Rhodes Scholar, master of philosophy & dedicated futurist, Tom is also a raging sexist
and one of the last bastions of male-chauvinism in the known universe. He is also uncanny
in his insight into others and one of the most compassionate men on planet Earth. In
another era, Tom’s era, he might have been described as a man’s man. But Tom
Devlin, more than anyone gathered at this party, is aware that such times have passed.
|
| EVELYN DEVLIN: A self-made real-estate magnate, she happens (in
her other life) to be Mrs. Tom Devlin and the mother of his three college age children. A
former Olympic trialist & fashion model, she is, at 50, a strong woman who does not
suffer fools gladly. Having overcome dirt poor beginnings, she nurses occasional senses of
inferiority that she hides with a show of social flair. |
| CONRAD “CONNIE” VICAR.: Described by others as perhaps
the most talented man in the world, Connie Vicar - a gamesman, superb athlete &
dazzling entrepreneur - is the one man who, at 60, feels entirely washed up. Having just
come off an aneurysm & quadruple bypass, he looks & feels old for his age. He
recognizes the fact that he might well be living on borrowed time. And yet there is about
him a razor-sharp wit, an irrepressible puckishness & a refusal to grow up that is
utterly contagious. A veteran of four broken marriages that have drained his considerable
fortune, he is now married to “the worst sober decision I ever made,” a woman
who has more money than heart, & a mordant tongue that hides them both. |
| PRUNELLA “PRU” VICAR: An heiress to a technology
fortune, she, by her own estimation, has “more money than God’s daddy.” An
attractive, if plumpish woman in her 40s, Pru has always gotten everything she ever wanted
except a happy relationship. Her marriage to Connie will do nothing to assuage that sense
of lack. In fact, it is described by their friends as a “rhythm of mutual
torment,” a dance that both of them seem to enjoy. Brilliant & caustically
insightful, Pru is also an alcoholic and the self-appointed “jester” in the
kingdom of Devlin. |
| RICHARD DANE: “The Great Dane.” Having just turned 60,
Richard looks like a man in his early 40s, possesses the stamina of a man in his 20s, and
feels, “older in my soul,” than anyone else alive. Life after 60 is not an
anticipation for him; it is a terror. A tv actor on a long-running night-time soap that
has long since been canceled, he has recently seen his professional cachet diminish &
his fan base dry up. Philosophical about the superficial nature of “show
business,” he has become highly spiritual in recent years & a teacher of
meditation. Yet nothing can prepare him for the dark future that faces him now; the one he
has to keep secret from everyone else, especially his significant other.
|
| GENEVIEVE “GENNY” DUCAZZO: Born in France but gifted
with a perfect command of English, Genny is a Vogue cover supermodel, and a media
empire of her own. Madly in love with Richard, she has only recently become his paramour.
Yet in that brief period of months, she has seen him fall from his positive nature toward
a dark passage in his life that both frightens & confuses her. Mature far beyond her
24 years, Genny comes into this New Year’s Eve a relative stranger to the others.
Beholding the celebration of madness that is about to take place, she will certainly not
leave one. |
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Synopsis
It is New Year’s Eve, 1999. Three men — close friends for forty
years — have used this occasion for a reunion, only to find that time, individual
philosophies, and personality clashes have left them with little in common. They have all
gone different directions, have different women in their lives, and have become, perhaps,
something less than they expected of themselves. Most of all, they have all recently had
their own close encounter with the dark side of their mortality. (Two of the friends have
had brushes with death. And the third, a television star on the downside of his career is
secretly considering ending his own life.) All three men, born in the year of the tiger,
have also turned the traumatic age of 60 in the last Now, they face the new millennium
with an inevitable sense of wonder, an invariable sense of mischief, and in most cases a
fragile sense of hope.
Despite their differences, they share another common bond: the
recollection of their excellence, the flowering of their youth, and the familiar music of
their early dreams, when all the universe was theirs to run as they pleased. Now, each man
holds a secret of his own that he is at choice to reveal on this night. The question is
will he?
A black tie dinner for six set near midnight of the new millennium will
send these men, their wives and young lovers on a new path — toward sunrise and a
whole new perspective on life... or not!
A comedy with a bittersweet dramatic heart — and with six highly
unforgettable characters — The Year of the Tiger will often surprise but never
fail to delight its audience. |
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