The Pimp
A play in two acts
Copyright © 2024 by Sebastian de Assis
Synopsis
When United States Senator Richard Headlam spends a night in a New York City police station for prostitution solicitation, he is placed in a jail cell with a notorious South Bronx pimp. Their overnight encounter reveals a new perspective into what it really means to be a pimp.
The approximately 90 minute-play is about the happenstance interaction of the prominent 49-year-old Caucasian U.S. Senator and his cellmate, the infamous 38-year-old African-American pimp, Clint “The Rooster” Crow. The blatant contrast in education, upbringing, and social class between the two characters is clearly evinced through their speech, behavior, and mannerisms. At first they appear to be fundamentally opposite in every perceivable way. However, soon they realize that they share more common characteristics than their divergent socioeconomic status indicates. Through their dialogue, gradually they become aware of an unexpected common denominator in their professional trade: they are both pimps; one of sex workers on the streets, while the other carries out similar functions in a prostituted political system.
As the two men become better acquainted with each other and begin sharing sordid details of their trades and debasement of their character, the misleading perceived discrepancies between their differing personae, physical appearances, and communication styles fall into a common pit of deception. In the end, it becomes evident who the ultimate pimp is.
Click on the play’s title to read Act I Scene 1: The Pimp
THE FERN, THE FISH, AND THE FAILED
A (magical realism) play in two acts
Copyright © 2025 by Sebastian de Assis
Synopsis
When the inherent intelligence in the simplest forms of life can perceive foreboding perils oblivious to humans, the consequences to the latter can prove to be devastating.
Sharing the living space with an older couple challenged by financial insecurities and the prospect of homelessness, a fern and a goldfish observe and discuss the predicament of their caretakers with the understanding that the couple’s dilemma is but a microscopic representation of a much broader collective crisis.
After losing her job at the age of 62, Mary Burns brings a goldfish home at the end of a long stressful day to assuage her angst, which her uncouth 58-year-old live-in life partner, Julian Jones (J.J.), objects to what he deems to be another unnecessary acquisition. First it was a fern, then a China vase, and now a goldfish to crowd the small apartment. Consumed by his own boredom and addictions, he seems unable to grasp his partner’s emotional needs. Frightened by the threat of abject poverty in old age, she takes action to overcome the challenges while her alcoholic partner collecting disability benefits wastes both his time and their limited resources away. Surreptitiously, the fern and the goldfish converse about their caretakers’ dire situation within the context of crises affecting the world at large.
The approximately 100-minute two acts play is a magical realism story about the development of a loving friendship between a fern and a goldfish in a chaotic environment of hopelessness. While the human situation in the household deteriorates piecemeal, the undetected relationship of the plant and the fish reveals the inherent intelligence of nature in contrast with hubristic human ignorance. Their verbalized interaction blends in with the couple’s dialogues exposing the root causes of individual and historical collective crises.
In the end, literally, the perceptive understanding of life from the fern and goldfish’s viewpoint supersedes human intellectual prowess. An imminent tragedy that seemed obvious even to unsophisticated minds, was obscured by supercilious thinking, irresponsible deeds, and the calamitous outcome caused by both.
Click on the play’s title to read Act I Scene 1: The Fern, The Fish, and The Failed