cover photo by T Charles Erickson
“The editorial office of
a golf magazine seems an unlikely place for a comedic farce. But it makes
perfect sense in the context of SCRAMBLE! by David Wiltse….
Actually, SCRAMBLE, isn’t about golf at all; it’s about a very typical small
office and the Byzantine romantic intrigues that go on there. The fact that this
office houses a golf magazine is merely secondary to the struggles over sex and
power that are the real focus of the staff’s interest.
The play’s title, SCRAMBLE!, does owe a nod to a variation of the game of
golf by that name. In the basic game of Scramble, each member of a four-person
team tees off on a hole, then the best of their tee shots is selected and all
players play their second shots from the location of that best tee shot,
continuing on until the ball is holed. There are numerous variations on the
theme, such as Texas Scramble, Florida Scramble, Reverse Scramble, and so on;
there is even an organization called Scramble Golf America that organizes
Scramble golf tournaments.
Wiltse’s play is a lot like the game, in that nobody knows quite who’s on top
and who’s doing what to whom from one moment to the next. The plot is almost
secondary to the jokes and silliness that result….
Wiltse is one of today’s most versatile playwrights, but although he refuses
to be limited to one genre, he is consistent when it comes to creating memorable
characters. The split-second exits and entrances, the double entendres and the
mistaken identities are all delivered in classic farcical style, but the
characters are the ingredients that make SCRAMBLE so much fun to watch.
The six players in SCRAMBLE all inhabit the too-close-for-comfort
headquarters of a golf journal that is reportedly about to be sold, making all
the employees extremely nervous about the future of their jobs. But even with
unemployment looming, that doesn’t stop the three men and three women from
trying out several variations on the theme of interoffice love (or, as some
would call it, workplace sexual harassment).
There’s sexy Temple, who doesn’t know much about golf but definitely wants to
get ahead in the publishing world, no matter how she has to do it. There’s Jane,
a high-strung copywriter with kooky layers of mismatched clothing and the
unfortunate habit of talking so fast that only her true friends can understand
what she’s saying. There’s Carter, who is a bit too comfortable in his job,
considering how hard he works at it.
On the management level are Sam, an editor with the instincts of a
dominatrix, and Otis, the only member of the staff who seems to actually play
golf. Finally, there’s Johnson, a tongue-tied newcomer and Man of Mystery. Is he
a genius? A poor nebbish? A spy dispatched by the new owners to report on the
antics of the staff and decides who should stay or go? When these six characters
collide, anything can happen.
Wiltse has shown once again that he can master any stage genre…. There are
plenty of quick sight gags, sound effect jokes and pratfalls going on here, in
addition to all of Wiltse’s clever wordplay….”
Jackie Lupo, Scarsdale Inquirer
originally produced by Florida Stage
3 M, 3 F
I S B N 978-0-88145-437-6
$14.95
read the first 19 pages of the play on line