Rapidly becoming one of America's favorite contest plays, A Game was a winner in a nationwide playwriting contest at Jacksonville, Florida, University. Its author is a master at plotting and dialogue.

The story: Three men (or women) accept an invitation to take part in an experiment...a game in which a small room is divided into three equal areas—one for each person. At intervals they recite a slogan: "This is my land. It is mine. It is beautiful, and it is mine." As the game progresses, we see the drive that makes each human want to possess more than his neighbors. A drive that causes hatred...and starts wars.

When this play was published, Dennis E. Noble, the author, was a Shubert Playwriting Fellow and Ph. D. candidate at the University of Colorado. Mr. Noble had this to say about his play: "A Game begins as farce and ends in deadly earnest. I realize that it is unusual to shift from one mood completely to its opposite. But it was in this move from comic to the serious that I hoped to keep the characters simple in order to hinder emotional identification with them. The characters exist in this play in the service of an idea, and I wished that the dramatization of that idea would strike the viewer hard. And it is in the violent impact of the ending that I hoped the viewer would share Dr. Henning's confusion, and complain as does he: 'But it's only a game!' And it is a game, this playing with nationalism. But it is a deadly game. It kills."

In this script—which can be staged simply or with multi-media effects—Mr. Noble has combined fantastical elements of the Theatre of the Absurd with realistic aspects of the traditional theatre to produce a play with a powerful impact. For university experimental theatre, college and high school play contests. Modern clothing; virtually a bare stage. A Director's Script (prompt book) is available from the publisher. It contains drawings of costumes and set, details on all technical aspects of staging, discussion of characterization, plot, and theme. It also suggests the complete blocking and full stage directions for all movement and business.

"We won the regional Drama Festival with A Game and have been nominated for the provincial Festival of the Arts in Victoria, B.C."—B.J. Christiansen, Kwailikum Secondary School, Qualicum Beach, B.C., Canada. "A Game will be presented at the Pennsylvania State Thespian Festival." —Medill Bair High School, Fairless Hills, Pa. "Our performance [of A Game] was rated 'all state' in the Wisconsin High School one act play contest...My thanks to you for providing us with good material."—Don Voermans, Oconto Falls, Wis.

See also: Plays About Personal Relationships