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Starkweather

A Full-Length Play
By Jim Dalglish

A charming young con man wanders into Starkweather -- a prairie town in the very center of both North America and nowhere.  He meets his match when he breaks into the home of a woman “of mature years” with god on her side.

"Nothings more dangerous than a man with nowhere to go and an eternity to get there." - Mrs. Cook

Characters

Tom - late twenties
Mrs. Cook - A gas station proprietress of mature years (mid seventies)
J. - A Mexican migrant worker in his early twenties.

Setting

Prairie house, gas station, and environs near Starkweather, a rural town on the rolling plains of North Dakota.

Time

Any time between 1960 and now.  This is a portion of the world where the steady rush of time swirls in a small whirlpool far off the main current of time.

Length

2 hrs. 

Type

Drama / Tragedy

Themes

The disintegration of rural life on the Northern Plains; faith; family dynamics; gay issues; migrant workers; child abuse, aging.

Acting Class Scenes

Dialog (Tom & J.)  pp. 4 - 7.
Dialog (Mrs. Cook & Tom) pp. 11 -  18

Script Completed

New full-length version:  Late 2008
Three-act version:  Act 1 - 1986;  Acts 2 & 3 - Early 2000

Production History

Reading - Boston Accomplices
Reading: Provincetown Theater, Massachusetts, 2/23/2009

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