Packing Urgency and a Story into 10-Minute Plays: “Winter Stars” by Sonia Barkat

Sometime in the past six years, I began to read contemporary plays. It may have started with a play we saw at the Hampstead Theatre in London, a dramatic comedy entitled Seminar written by Theresa Rebeck. (The attraction was actor Roger Allam, who plays the young Inspector Morse’s boss in the Masterpiece Mystery series Endeavour.) It’s a play about writing, writers, and academic egos. The script was for sale in the theatre lobby, and on a whim, I bought it to read later. 

I enjoyed the script so much that I started reading others. Three years later, I read The Ferryman by Jez Butterworth, about “The Troubles” in Northern Ireland, but this time before I saw the play. And I was glad I did – the thick Irish accents by the actors could at times confuse my American ears, but I knew the story. It helped – a lot. A more recent play where reading the script also helps is Will Arbery’s Heroes of the Fourth Turning. 

Winter Stars by new playwright and writer Sonia Barkat is subtitled “Three 10-Minute Plays from Tragedy to Fantasy to Comedy.” I’m familiar with one-act plays, but initial reaction was only 10 minutes? As it turns out, that reaction reflects my own lack of knowledge; the 10-minute play is its own theatre sub-genre and even has web sites with catalogs of scripts, how they’re structured and written, how to produce them, and other resources. 

To continue reading, please see my post today at Tweetspeak Poetry.

"The Dragon Murder Case" by S.S. Van Dine

From 1926 to his death in 1939, S.S. Van Dine published 12 Philo Vance detective stories. Certain characters were present in almost all of them – Vance himself; the narrator S.S. Van Dine, simply called “Van;” district attorney John F.X. Markham; Currie, Vance’s butler; Emanuel Doremus, the medical examiner; and five policemen who were detectives in the New York Homicide Bureau.

Four of the five policeman have few if any speaking roles. They take orders, put suspects under surveillance, stand guard over murder scenes, and serve as the “muscle” for Vance and Markham. The four detectives are known only by their last names – Snitkin, Guilfoyle, Burke, and Hennessey. Their boss, Sergeant Ernest Heath, has a larger role, and usually accompanies Vance, Van, and Markham as they undertake the various murder investigations. 

Heath is drawn as almost a caricature, and the “almost” is the key word. He’s a bit pugnacious, always looks for the most obvious solution (which is never the ultimate solution in a Philo Vance mystery), barks commands at his subordinates, and threatens suspects with “extra-legal” treatment. He also tends to stereotype by national origin, and he’s quick to point out what he perceives as the “natural” deviousness of people with Chinese or Italian ancestry, for example. 

In the first two books, The Benson Murder Case and The Canary Murder Case, Heath considers Philo Vance’s musings and observations as worse than useless. He wants action, not psychological analysis, and Vance is full of psychological analysis. Slowly, however, particularly as Vance manages to solve cases that look unsolvable, Heath comes to appreciate what the amateur detective can do.

By the seventh novel, The Dragon Murder Case, originally published in 1933, Heath not only appreciates Vance’s abilities but has come to actually emulate them. He comes to Vance and Markham, having a late Saturday dinner in Vance’s rooftop garden, and tells that there’s something wrong with what looks to be an accidental drowning. He bases his feeling on the undercurrents he senses with the people involved and the suspects seeming to have a fixation on dragons. (The story is notable for being the first in the series where the murder scene is not a brownstone or similar building in the more densely populated part of Manhattan.)

A young man has apparently drowned in a pool at the old Stamm estate, located on the northern end of Manhattan island. At a weekend party, at which there’s been heavy drinking, the man took a dive into the pool and never surfaced. The pool in question is an old body of water fed by a stream and then dammed to make it deeper. It’s also associated with old native American legends, specifically one that claimed a dragon inhabited the pool. Heath has discovered that everyone at the party seemed to hate the victim, and most of them also hated each other. 

S.S. Van Dine

If it’s a crime, it’s a curious one, with no sign of a body. Markham resists getting involved but Vance, impressed by Heath’s unease, convinces him. When the pool is drained, there’s still no sign of a body. What there is, though, are markings in the mud that look for all the world like those of a dragon’s claws. The subject of a dragon keeps recurring as the still-reluctant Markham and a determined Vance interview the guests and investigate the property. And then they find the body, complete with slashes like claw marks across the chest.

Willard Huntington Wright (1888-1939) was an art critic who had been literary editor of the Los Angeles Times, an editor of The Smart Set, a novelist, an art historian, and art exhibition organizer. A friend of H.L. Mencken and an admirer of the novels of Theodore Dreiser, Wright hated romance and detective fiction with a passion, until he needed money. In 1926, he published the first Philo Vance story, The Benson Murder Case, with Scribners. And he used the pen name “S.S. Van Dine.” 

The Dragon Murder Case was also made into a movie, released in 1934 and starring Warren William as Philo Vance. It’s a cunning story; Van Dine almost gets the reader to the point of believing in and expecting a dragon to appear. But there are different kind of dragons, and this mystery ultimately has a two-legged one. 

Related:

The Benson Murder Case by S.S. Van Dine.

The Canary Murder Case by S.S. Van Dine.

The Greene Murder Case by S.S. Van Dine.

The Bishop Murder Case by S.S. Van Dine.

The Scarab Murder Case by S.S. Van Dine.

The Kennel Murder Case by S.S. Van Dine.

A symmetry

After Romans 5:12-21

There’s a kind

of symmetry

to it all, that sin

was transmitted

through one man,

one act bringing

condemnation

and death,

and

redemption was

achieved through

one man,

one act,

bringing

justification and

life.

Photograph by Greg Jeanneau via Unsplash. Used with permission.

Saturday Good Reads

It’s like taking a walk through the history of popular culture – or the history of popular detective books and television shows. Olivia Rutigliano at Crime Reads ranks the most iconic detective sidekicks. Included are Bess and George from the Nancy Drew mysteries and even Tonto from The Lone Ranger television series.

Defining “modernism” has always been something of a problem. It actually has two meanings – what is current or contemporary and “something that is done in a certain manner.” Nayeli and Riano at The Imaginative Conservative takes a stab at resolving the inherent tension between the two, using T.S. Eliot as a guide. And speaking of Eliot, Scott Beauchamp at Law & Liberty has an essay on Eliot and rediscovering home, which for the poet was first St. Louis.

We’ve been watching the “World on Fire” mini-series on PBS, the story of World War II in Europe in roughly 1939 and 1940 told from the perspectives of several different characters. One of the characters is an American journalist in Berlin, whose broadcasts home have to pass the Nazi censor. The neighbors in her apartment house are German, with a son in Poland and a young daughter who is epileptic. Coincidentally, this week marked the 80th anniversary of the Nazi T4 centers, which euthanized Germans with disabilities. Matt Lebovic at The Time of Israel has the story.

More Good Reads

Poetry

Two Poems – Joseph Brodsky at Literary Hub.

The Pilot and Other Poems – Bruce Dale Wise at Society of Classical Poets.

No Words – Paul Hughes at Poet and Priest.

High Windows – A.F. Moritz at Literary Matters.

British Stuff

The Buildings of Smithfield Market – A London Inheritance.

How the World’s Only Feudal Lord Outclassed the Nazis to Save Her People – Lucas Reilly at Mental Floss.

Faith

A Brutal Lament – D. Blair Smith at Tabletalk.

Giving in a Time of Scarcity – Charity Singleton Craig at Redbud Writers Guild.

Keep Christianity Weird – Jake Meador at Mere Orthodoxy.

Critique Gently, Encourage Fiercely – Scott Sauls at For the Church.

Life and Culture

The Moment in Race Relations That Keeps Repeating Itself – Angela Alaimo O’Donnell at Church Life Journal.

Something We Can All Agree On? Corporate Buzzwords Are the Worst – Kate Cray at The Atlantic.

Failing in a Pandemic – Alex Sosler at Front Porch Republic.

Writing and Literature

The Mind of the Moralist: Samuel Johnson, first among equals – Algis Valiunas at Claremont Review of Books.

Improve Your Writing by Getting Back to Basics – Ann Kroeker, Writing Coach.

American Stuff

Then Again: Seeking the sublime on Vermont’s majestic peaks – Mark Bushnell at VT Digger.

Art

The master's hand: a treasured Vermeer gives up its secrets – Nancy Kenney at The Art Newspaper. 

Gentle on My Mind – The Petersons

Painting: A man reading, oil on canvas by Vaino Hamalainen (1876-1940).

Genetic inheritance

After Romans 5:12-21

Genetics are, or can be,

destiny, giving us height

and hair color, eye color,

skin color, ear size,

foot size, and, often,

health or aspects of it.

Strings of DNA twist

down generations, twist

down time, certain

combinations never

letting go, never

disappearing, tagging

along generation after

generation, replicating

and never weakening,

never disappearing, more

than a parasite, part of 

the genetic core.

Genetics is destiny, 

the guilt of birth broken

only by the gene-changer

nailed to a tree.

Photograph by Hal Gatewood via Unsplash. Used with permission.

“Bells, Tails, & Murder” by Kathy Manos Penn

Leta Parker has a rather unusual gift. Since childhood, she can talk with dogs and cats. Now, a lot of us are known for talking with dogs and/or cats, but Leta really talks with them. She understands everything a dog or cat will bark or meow, respectively. She doesn’t advertise this gift; her family thought she was really strange, and she doesn’t need other people thinking she’s more than strange.

She’s an American who’s just moved to Astonbury in the Cotswolds in England. Leta is a widow; her husband Henry died from injuries when he was struck by a car while cycling, and Leta is not really over his death. His pension and life insurance gave her the financial freedom necessary to do something she always wanted to do – live in the Cotswolds. And she’s made good friends throughout the town – the car garage owner, the bookstore proprietor, the innkeeper and his wife, and many others. One town resident everyone knows is Alice Johnson, who cleans houses (and the inn) and is an excellent cook.

Kathy Manos Penn

Early one morning, Leta takes her dog Dickens (the pets invariably have literary names; Leta’s cat is named Christie) for a walk neat the town’s memorial cricket pavilion. The walk barely starts when Leta and Dickens discover Alice’s body. While her death appears accidental, as if she tripped and hit her head, her purse is missing. When Leta goes to find and feed Alice’s cat, she discovers the home has been ransacked.  Even worse, Leta sees a figurine that her late husband had given her; did Alice steal it? As it turns out, Alice had a penchant for pilfering, especially valuable books, like first editions of the worlds of J.M. Barrie, the author of Peter Pan and who had strong connections to the Astonbury area.

Bells, Tails, & Murder by Kathy Manos Penn is the first mystery novel in the Dickens & Christie series, and it’s a fun fusion of literary history, life in the Cotswolds, talking pets, theft and greed, and murder. It’s officially classed as a “cozy” mystery, which means it’s a clean story, with no bad language or R- or NC-17-rated scenes. It also includes a recipe for Greek salad, which plays a small role in the story. Penn also artfully keeps the reader guessing as to the villain’s identity, and it’s great fun to keep guessing as new clues emerge.

Penn is also the author of the second novel in the Dickens & Christie series, Pumpkins, Paws, & Murder; Lord Banjo the Royal Pooch; and The Ink Penn: Celebrating the Magic in the Everyday.

“Vintage Saints and Sinners” by Karen Wright Marsh

Most of us in the Christian faith can point to a number of people who have directly been significant contributors and influences on our faith journeys. It might be parents, other relatives, friends, pastors, teachers, missionaries, or others. And then there are the once- or twice-removed influences, people we have never met but whose words and writings have had major impacts on our faith. For myself, I can name pastors, missionaries, and writers like C.S. Lewis, Francis Schaeffer, J.R.R. Tolkien, J.I. Packer, and more. The people and influences remind us we are part of a larger community of saints, past and present, and we have been shaped by many people and many Christian streams of thought.

In Vintage Saints and Sinners: 25 Christians Who Transformed My Faith, Karen Wright Marsh tells the stories of Christians across the centuries who have shaped her faith. Part biography, part memoir, and even part devotional, the book stands as a solid introduction to both well-known and lesser-known Christians as well as a testament to the impact Christians can have on fellow believers separated by both time and geography.

As she points out in the introduction, all of can remember the stories we heard in Sunday School – stories of both Biblical characters and Christians who are rightly known as heroes of the faith. But as she grew and matured, Marsh discovered distraction, fear, and doubt. And here, too, she found examples from across Christian history.

Many of the people whose story she tells as she tells her own story are well known – St. Augustine, C.S. Lewis, Flannery O’Connor, Martin Luther, Mother Teresa, Thomas Merton, John Wesley, and St. Francis of Assisi. She also includes the lesser-known but just as meaningful – Amanda Berry Smith. Fannie Lou Hamer, Mark Paik Lee, Aelred of Rievaulx, and Sophie Scholl. 

The narrative for each individual is roughly the same. Marsh begins with a personal story, moves quickly to the character, provides a brief biography or general background, explains how each came to faith and the impact each had, and then moves back to the personal, applying the lessons of the individual’s life to her own circumstances and faith. Many of the stories I had heard or read before, but I was unfamiliar with many of them except by name only. 

Karen Wright Marsh

But I learned things even about the better known, like why Mother Teresa believed God had stopped speaking to her for decades; the role Fannie Lou Hamer played in the Civil Rights struggle; and how Brother Lawrence came to wash up on the shores of faith – blocked from his chosen calling of being a soldier because of a crippling injury.

Marsh is the cofounder and executive director of Theological Horizons, a university ministry focused on theological scholarship “at the intersection of faith, thought, and life.” She teaches students in programs and classes, writes curriculum, and speaks at a wide array of meetings, seminars, and retreats. She received degrees in philosophy and linguistics from Wheaton College and the University of Virginia. She lives in Charlottesville, Virginia, with her family.

Vintage Saints and Sinners offers history, biography, theology, understanding, and faith, but its stories offer one thing above all – encouragement. People from the past have experienced what you are going through; they knew doubt, despair, and fear. Their stories tell you to have courage and take heart.

Top illustration: a depiction of Brother Lawrence in his kitchen.