Oswald's
Backyard
by Leslie Bramm
ISBN #1-933159-057
JAC #2005-0001Cast
- AN INTERVIEWER:
Late 30s. Snide, aloof. Appears only on the
television.
- LEO OSCAR:
24 years old. Sometimes tender, sometimes volatile.
Takes himself seriously. Doesn’t like to be laughed at.
- THE COMRADE:
Older than Leo. The homunculus. Lurks after Leo and
appears only to him. May or may not be Che Quevera.
- RINA OSCAR:
Early 20s. Leo’s wife. Russian-born.
Pop-obsessed, new American. Wants to have fun. Very beautiful and barefoot.
- GEORGE:
40s. Norma Jean’s husband. Good ol’ boy charm.
Loves to have a good time.
- NORMA JEAN:
40s. Loves a good time. Sensual & intelligent.
Able to figure people out.
The Setting
Leo Oscar’s backyard, 4907 Magazine Street, New Orleans, Louisiana. It is
late morning, afternoon an early evening, September, 1963.
 Synopsis
In his backyard, Leo Oscar is the United States of America. Naïve, petulant and
ultimately violent. Leo is at the center of our national obsession—the search for
identity. He battles between idealism and a desire for fame. The television, the media, is
his ultimate confirmation. The play is set in New Orleans, September of 1963, in and out of Leo
Oscar’s mind. He has managed to create a political commotion around himself that
lands him a shot on a local TV talk show. It is the day the show airs, and it has become
Leo’s passion—his big break. However, Leo’s story is complicated by a
television that won’t work, the arrival of some unexpected house guests, and the
return of an old friend. Leo is frustrated and humiliated until it is inevitable that he
lashes out. While the events in this play may closely resemble the real life Lee
Harvey Oswald, this is fiction. The play does not address or rebut any particular
conspiracy, but instead explores the psychological landscape of a young American man,
driven to extremely desperate actions.
Visit Bramm's
Author Page on
Amazon.com!
“A
complicated, fascinating work.”
- Martin Denton, nytheatre.com
"Bramm creates some very
interesting abstractions with his stereotypical characters...bizarre and
funny with chucks of truth and sarcasm flying around."
-Richard Hinojosa, nytheatre.com
About this Playwright
LESLIE
BRAMM
is an award-winning playwright and the author of 14
plays which have been produced, workshopped and/or developed by
Three Crows Theatre, The Present Company, The Penobscot Theatre, The
Actor’s Theatre of Louisville, The Gold Coast Theatre (Australia),
The Colorado Fine Arts Center, Emerging Artists Theatre, Nicu’s
Spoon, The Edward Albee Last Frontier Conference, Rattle Stick,
Reverie Productions, Playwrights Horizons/Tisch, and Shelter Theatre
Group, to name a few. He co-wrote the screen play This is Not
Here with actor Kevin Corrigan, based on the memoir The Last
Days of John Lennon. Bramm is a member of the Present Company’s
Pool, Variations Theatre Group, The League of Independent Theatres
and the Dramatist Guild. Visit Leslie Bramm's
Author Page
on Amazon.com!
Have you read Bramm's other full-length
drama McNaughtin & Son,
or his one acts
Big Ball or
Islands of Repair?
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