Help! I need somebody. Help! Not just anybody! Help me finish my play.

[MalReynolds]

Untitled play down there is the name of the game, and I have the first two acts plotted, but I'm lacking a complete third act.

So, I'll give you a rundown of the first 2 acts here, and then some input on what the third act should pan out like:



SPOILER











Act I, Scene I

Thomas and Harold in a park. Thomas talks about his new paleontologist dig and how it's a tremendous achievement. Thomas and Harold appear to be old friends, and Thomas mentions that he slept with Sarah Alderman - who is not his wife - when she came out to take his picture for National Geographic. He gets nervous giving this information to Harold, a novelist, and makes an excuse to go home.

Act I, Scene II

Thomas and Gina (his wife) in their apartment. They talk about his success - how fortuante it was, because they were hard up for money and living in quite a shabby manner. They also talk about Harold, and how is public persona is nothing like his private persona - his public persona is up front, honest, and very harsh, while his personal persona is very manipulative. Gina prepares dinner, when there's a knock at the door. It's Harold.

Act I, Scene III

Dinner. Thomas, Harold and Gina are all seated, and Harold begins to question Thomas about his dig, and the details behind it. Thomas is more than happy to talk about it, and they soon exclude Gina in the conversation, who eventually gets jealous and demands that she be allowed in the 'boys club'. Harold allows, and brings up a topic that they are all familiar with - infidelities. Harold outs Thomas for having slept with the photographer, and leaves before a response can be made.

END ACT I.

Act II, Scene I

Thomas shows up at Harold's apartment some weeks later. He has been completely ruined - Gina left him, and the dig turned out to be a setup, culminating in Thomas having to defend himself against accusations that he himself planted to fossils in order to garner acclaim. Harold finds this all very amusing, and welcomes him in. He apologizes to Thomas, but says that after what he (Harold) put Gina through when they were married, before Thomas came along, he decided she needed the truth. Thomas disagrees, and states that he only needed to beat Thomas, because Thomas beat Harold by ending his marriage to Gina, the only woman he cared about, some odd years ago. This infuriates Harold, who claims ownership of Thomas - as he has nothing left to live for. He also reveals that he planted to the fossils for Thomas to find and he made sure it was Sarah Alderman who was sent out. As a final blow, he says that his latest novel has been nominated for a Pulitzer, pre-release, and he has it on good authority that he will win, and he called a conference to cite his retirement from writing effective after the publish date of his new book.

Act II, Scene II

Thomas is in disarray, living in Harold's apartment. Harold frequently makes him walk around in a dress, and clean the entire floor, utterly humiliating him. But Harold has broken the man down to his most base. He eventually reveals that he plans to throw a literati party for his next book, and he has a very nice outfit picked out for Thomas, and that Thomas will have to perform the tricks he taught him for the party. They discuss at length the strength of the human spirit and the tenacity it has.

Act III, Scene III

The literati party. The book has just been released, and Harold is waiting on reviews - the first due to be printed that morning. At the party, he has Thomas wander around in nothing but a pair of underpants and a heavy chain around his neck. He forces Thomas to dance at the party, and perform his various other feats - which aren't much. Harold's party guests are walking the line between amused and mortified when the first reviews come in.

They're overwhelmingly negative. Some papers cite Harold's decision to retire after his latest book as a stroke of mercy for the reading public. Thomas perks up...

And reveals that he staged the letter from the Pulitzer board and the phone call from a 'friend on the inside', recalling a conversation he had years earlier with Harold that if Harold ever won the Pulitzer he would retire. As he cannot go back into writing without tarnishing his public reputation, Thomas has killed Harold's dream - effectively crushing his spirit, and restoring some of Thomas's. This is short lived, as Harold violently attacks Thomas, and the final picture in this act is Harold towering over Thomas, brandishing a lamp like a cudgel.

Act III, Scene I

?

Act III, Scene II

?

Act III, Scene III

?

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It's a clear domination game between the two men, iniated by Thomas before the play started by stealing Gina away from Harold. And through the play, it escalates - at first, a friendly game in the park, then at dinner, then at Harold's, and finally, with Harold's life effectively being ended - however, I need a third act. I need there to be closure to the play. It climaxes in the last scene of Act II, but I need falling action. The only problem there being I don't really see any way those two would ever be in the same room with each other.

Now, I'm toying with the idea of each of them hiring a killer, independent of each other, to take the other one out, but that removes almost all subtext.

Okay, now the idea I have, that I just came up with while writing this:

Act III, Scene I

Harold contacts an old friend from "the war", a known contract killer, to take out Thomas. He and the killer discuss at length the reason for the battle between the old friends, and agrees to do it, for a price. Harold finds himself redeemed.

Act III, Scene II

Thomas contacts a hired killer that he finds through an old friend. They discuss what really started the feud - the Gina "stealing" and the implications it had against Harold's masculinity. The killer agrees to do it, for a price.

Act III, Scene III

The killers go to collect their money, and it flashes back to the start of Act III - the killer never left the apartment. Instead, he kills Harold. And another flash, to Thomas's apartment - the killer never left - he killed Thomas. They both go to collect their money from Gina, who has claimed herself to be the ultimate victim in the situation. Which is somewhat true. With her revenge against the life ruining, philandering husbands, she is finally happy, and she sits down in a park with a chess board, setting up the pieces. When her friend meets her, she has her friend sit down, and describes herself in one word - as "the victor."

EDIT: And the killer Harold hires is Gina's brother - he met Gina through the brother. Perhaps the killer for both men is Gina's brother. That'd make things certainly more interesting.



GWAAAH the "friend" she has sit down is Sarah Alderman - full circle right there, baby, yeah. Alright, I did it. Now I don't need help, but would rather like opinions on the plot.

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I think I like that. Real twist at the end.