The MAMA Law

By Joseph K. Adams

The MAMA Law is a satirical one act play that premiered on November 1st, 1980 at the Deja Vu in Hollywood, CA and has been produced around the US.

On returning from a stay out of the country, a young man finds that his familiar nation has been changed with the creation of the Metro-Rural Agression Management Agency, MAMA, which replaces the police and the courts. He has trouble adjusting.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Oak and Lotus Publications
• Release date: Aug 8, 2013
• ISBN: 9781497780668

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Theater is ancient and will always be new.

The MAMA Law first opened November 4, 1980 at the DejaVu in Hollywood, California under the direction of Michael Abrams, assisted by Kim Collins.  Shelly Kurtz played Michael,  Jo Ann Lehman and Michele Leschi played Gracie, and Bunny Summers was Nora. It was produced again in September, 1981 under the direction of Ralph M. Clift, with Charles Edward Pogue as Michael, Carol Cullen as Gracie and Ann Wade as Nora. and again in Houston in 1983 under the direction of Kim Collins

© 1980, 1987 by the Author, All Rights Reserved

Preface to The MAMA Law

People have called me a hippy for most of my life. I have accepted that as their shorthand, but in my heart I was, and remain, a beatnik. In the late 1970s, California passed the first anti-smoking law. I was outraged. I considered smoking to be something undesirable – but it was simply a matter of manners to not light up while people were eating, or in someone else’s home, or where someone sensitive to smoke was breathing the same air. But I was outraged that the government would attempt to legislate courtesy! At the same time, an actor who had worked with me for several years in radio drama was performing with an improv comedy group. The actor was Michael Abrams and the group was Raw Material, a very talented group of funny people.

The group performed in an old beatnik coffeehouse in Hollywood called The Deja Vu Coffeehouse and Theater. The owner, a magical beatnik called Smitty, made his space available to comedians, musicians, and poets for small stage presentations. Smitty wanted to try some stage work. Mike thought of me as a writer and asked if I had anything for stage after several years of radio writing. I didn’t. But I did have a version of The MAMA Law that had been produced for radio, so over a weekend I converted it to stage. It premiered the night Ronald Reagan was elected. I found that to be appropriate. There were two other plays I had written for that first program – Two for a Quarter and The Patriot, both long lost. The Deja Vu became a major part of my creative and social life. I fell into a schedule of one full evening of new plays every third month and I proceeded to fill them with one-acts and full length works. We added scripts from other authors into the mix and continued producing for several years. Other playwrights filled the calendar for the Deja Vu; the West Coast premiere of one part