Rollo's Wild Oat

Rollo Webster has a consuming ambition: to play Hamlet. Escaping the restraining influences of his overly sensible family, this slightly eccentric young man decides the time for dreaming is over. Armed with buckets of cash and absolute certainty in his own abilities, he hires a theater, assembles a troupe of actors, and casts the somnambulant Goldie MacDuff as his Ophelia, a woman who would thrive at a midnight frolic but struggles to stay awake after twelve o'clock. He has everything: a gamesome leading lady, a somewhat unscrupulous stage manager, and enough money to make Shakespeare weep. Now if only he had any talent. This sparkling 1920s farce dissects the theatrical ambitions of the talentless with sharp, affectionate humor. Clare Kummer understands exactly how far ambition can drift from ability before it becomes absurd, and her comedy mines every inch of that territory. The play works as both a send-up of theatrical pretension and a surprisingly tender portrait of a dreamer who cannot see the joke. For readers who love period comedy, amateur theatricals, and the eternal collision between grand ambitions and humble gifts.