Winter Stars: Three 10-Minute Plays — From Tragedy to Fantasy to Comedy

By Sonia Barkat

These three short plays move along with dialog that's beautifully natural, lyrical, and often surprisingly poetic. Even the tragic play contains kernels of wit, while the comedic stirs the mind to thought in the midst of hilarity. Players will find that their powers of connection, one to another, will be powerfully called upon, as the dialog always inextricably links them together.

The collection includes one tragedy, one noir fantasy, and one comedy: Winter Stars; To the Shadows We Return, and Auras in Suburbia.

• Winter Stars is a mythic tragedy that draws from Celtic lore, to tenderly explore climate change through the relationship of two tussling brothers who, yet, love one another deeply: the Holly King and the Oak King

• To the Shadows We Return is a noir fantasy that imagines friendship with a vampire hiding in plain sight at an old New York hotel

• Auras in Suburbia is a gentle comedy that features gopher hedges and a misunderstood middle-aged man who just might be right about Carl the gardener, or just might be totally wrong. Though his wife is definitely not amused, playgoers will find that Mr. Jefferson is very entertaining to listen to, as he makes his predictions about what the stars hold for the neighborhood!

• Language: English
• Publisher: T.S. Poetry Press
• Release date: Apr 27, 2020
• ISBN: 9781943120420

Book preview

Winter Stars

three 10-minute plays

from tragedy to fantasy to comedy

s o n i a b a r k a t

t. s. poetry press • new york

T. S. Poetry Press

Ossining, New York

Tspoetry.com

© 2020, Sonia Barkat

All rights reserved. Do not reprint without permission.

ISBN 978-1-943120-42-0

Barkat, Sonia

[Drama/Fiction]

Winter Stars: Three 10-Minute Plays.

From Tragedy to Fantasy to Comedy

Contents

1 Winter Stars

2 To the Shadows We Return

3 Auras in Suburbia

1

Winter Stars

Time & Place

Midwinter, in an ancient forest clearing.

Characters

NARRATOR

HOLLY KING: Winter; rules over the dark half of the year, from midwinter to midsummer. Twin of the Oak King.

OAK KING: Summer; rules over the light half of the year, from midsummer to midwinter. Twin of the Holly King.

Note

The setting of this play is described in detail, but if it must be altered for a stage performance, the most important thing is that the feeling of the clearing—old, beautiful, magical and wild—remain intact in some way. The time of year should also be evident.

WINTER STARS

(The stage is dark and unlit as the NARRARTOR speaks.)

NARRATOR (off stage)

According to legend, each year in midsummer and midwinter, the Holly King and Oak King fight. The Holly King is strongest in midsummer, and the Oak King in midwinter. During the fight where they are at their strongest, one sibling kills his twin, who rests with Arianrhod, the goddess of reincarnation, in the castle of Caer Arianrhod, until his return at the next change of seasons.

(Lights fade up onto a forest clearing, untouched by time and human hands. The land is scattered in widely-spread trees, tall and old. The ground is covered in snow, and icicles hang like crystals from the silent branches. Holly grows here and there, its red berries bright and shining against the whiteness.

The HOLLY KING sits among the trees, on a fallen log, clad in old, Celtic-style clothing. A crown of holly rests upon his head. The OAK