Workshopping Lynn-Steven Johanson's script, "The Writer and the Thief," was like being thrown into an old-world aristocrat's living room and listening to the voices of yesteryear. An earlier version of Johanson's script had been produced, but he had subsequently changed the language throughout the script and was looking for this version to go through a workshop to see how it stood up. It stood up just fine!
Awash in verbose language patterns and word choice, the characters relate to each other as simply as two people can, and march us toward an ending that surprised. No surprise, however (as I have seen in most of the workshops), we all called for even more surprise, more verbose language and even more conflict. Come to think of it, I don't think we've done a script yet where the critics said, "Ooh, that was too much conflict..."
Lynn's script is tight and could go on-stage today, but we are all hoping for yet more twisting and turning at the end, and more flowery language, just to make us keep up with it all the more!
My thanks to Lynn for his great script and to Jake and Cate for doing another TMPW session as readers and critics.