Moonlight on the Post-Apocalyptic Dinner Theater

By P.J. Kelley

Moonlight on the Post-Apocalyptic Dinner Theater is a short play about the survivors of a nuclear apocalypse. Every night, the survivors congregate at the last inn on Earth to listen to the Jester, who tries to console them.
The two lead characters, Katrina and Fidelio, are in love with each other but Katrina feels their situation is too hopeless to allow their relationship to develop so she rejects him.
The world is enshrouded with massive dust and clouds as a result of the war. The days are hot, murky, and grim and the nights are cold and black. Neither the sun nor the stars can be seen anymore.
Katrina saves Fidelio's life one night when he is attacked by post nuclear crazies, and thus reveals she is in love with him as well.
Tortured people try to rebuild the wasteland, and stay alive in a metered verse play about the rebirth of the human spirit.

• Language: English
• Publisher: P.J. Kelley
• Release date: Aug 27, 2016
• ISBN: 9781370244195

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Moonlight on the Post-Apocalyptic Dinner Theater

By P.J. Kelley

Copyright 2016

Smashwords Edition

Smashwords Edition, License Notes

This book is protected under the copyright laws of the United States of America. Any reproduction or other unauthorized use of the material or artwork herein is prohibited.

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only.  This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people.  If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient.  If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy.  Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

Disclaimer: The persons, places, things, and otherwise animate or inanimate objects mentioned in this novel are figments of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to anything or anyone living (or dead) is unintentional.

Cover art by S.C. Kelley

Dedicated to Jake and Jazz.

List of characters

Katrina

Fidelio

The Merchant

The Mendicant

First Ruffian

Second Ruffian

The Innkeeper

The Jester

Enconia: a wealthy widow

Raul: Enconia's manservant

Sister Desperation: Chorus

Sister Hopelessness: Chorus

Table of Contents

Act 1

Act 2

Act 3

Act l

Scene:

(It is some years into the aftermath of a nuclear war. The region was not directly hit by nukes, but is still devastated by war and famine. A constant blanket of thick smog covers the Earth as a result of the fallout, and it makes the days dark and grim, and at night the skies are completely black. A lone wayfarer drives a small cart and pony though a small village reduced to rubble by war and suffering. Shattered buildings lie in rubble. It is the evening of the day, and the merchant is weary. Hidden in the wreckage and all but invisible to the casual observer is a dark figure swathed in rags. He is a sometimes mendicant, but is now too close to death to even care enough to beg. Two beautiful women, the Sister Spirits of Desperation and Hopelessness, move through the ruins, singing to each other. They are dressed in long gray gowns and wear garlands of dead flowers on their heads. Neither the Mendicant nor the Merchant can hear them.)

Sister Desperation

Behold these two in the remnants of blasts,

Which rocked civilization to this pass.

Society shattered and laws crumbled,

Commerce destroyed as all markets tumbled,

Down to depths so ridiculously low,

The economy still reels from the blow,

As technology and agriculture,

Mainly what you see is what you have here.

Two souls terrified of others to meet.

They hidden lurk on remnants of a street.

Sister Hopelessness

I see, Sister, it's a sign of the times.

Neither bears malice, but both are resigned,

To expect the worst from their fellow man,

But both cling to life as best as they can.

Both have learned the truth of apocalypse,

That through the world we are sailing like ships,

Though storms and chaos can alter all plans,

What doesn't change is in the heart of man.

Our simple peace and some prosperity,

Now replaced by manic austerity.

The world's quite fallen into dismember,

For reasons which none can now remember.

Sister Desperation

Some people remember but none still care,

About the mad events which brought us here.

Politics, finance, religion, and greed,

Are what did mainly irrigate the seeds.

These germinated into what we share,

Tragic wastelands and people in despair.

The