Cast

• TRIPP: Male, 30. A smooth yuppie salesman type. He thinks very highly of himself.
• ZACK: Male, 30. Tripp's underling, he aspires to be everything TRIPP is.
• NORM: Male, 36. A computer programmer and a lifelong nerd; the antithesis of TRIPP and ZACK.

Plot Summary

What would you do to prop up the rapidly sinking value of your dot-com stock options?  Tripp and Zack are discussing the latest quarterly results, which establish that the company is sinking fast. Some people are going to have to be laid off. Tripp uses that to segue into a confrontation with Zack about the huge volume of child pornography on Zack's computer. Tripp wants Zack to resign from the company, or else he'll have to bring the evidence to the attention of the boss. Zack tries to convince Tripp that he's being framed, that his laptop's been hacked. As it happens, Tripp is framing Zack. When Zack discovers this by accident, he has the upper hand, and he threatens to bring Tripp's duplicity to the attention of the boss, unless Tripp resigns. But neither Tripp nor Zack had the technical ability to frame each other; in both cases, they received Norm's help. Norm is a nerd, and Tripp and Zack are outraged to learn that Norm has been working under the table for both of them. Norm gets called to Tripp's office, and in a comic turnabout, presents the goods on both Tripp and Zack. Norm brings out two resignation letters to Tripp and Zack.

The Setting

TRIPP's office. Sometime in the late 1990s.

Author Biography

Patrick M Brennan is a playwright trapped inside the body of a computer programmer. He has written many short plays which have been performed in and around Boston, New York, and around the world. His short play Get Out Of My American Way was performed at the 2002 Boston Theater Marathon and was subsequently published by Baker's Plays. He is also the author of three full-length plays, including First Person Shooter, which won the Best Plays 2000 competition at Stageplays.com, was published by the Internet Theatre Bookshop in 2001, and has had several productions around the world. Patrick is President and webmaster of Playwrights’ Platform. See more of Patrick's work at www.pbrennan.net.

$20/package +
$25/performance royalty

If this short interests you, consider Brennan's BITS, or his one-acts Simbiotic, Here Lies George
and No Politics!