Title:  The Pot Boiler

Author:  Upton Sinclair

Release Date:  June, 2004 [EBook #5806] [Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule] [This file was first posted on September 4, 2002]

Edition:  10

Language:  English

Character set encoding:  ASCII

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The Pot Boiler

A Comedy in Four Acts

Upton Sinclair

CHARACTERS IN THE “REAL-PLAY”

Will .............................  The author
Peggy ................Joint author and critic
Bill .....................  Their son (aged 8)
Dad ............................  Will’s father
Schmidt.........................  The grocer
The Policeman. 
The Landlady.

Characters in the “Play-play”

Jack ........................  The adventurer
Bob .............................  His cousin
Dad ..............................  His father
Jessie..............................  His sister
Gladys ..........................  His fiancee
Belle .............................  A waitress
Dolly .............................  Her sister
Bill .........................A street gamin
Schmidt ................  A restaurant keeper
The Policeman. 
The Landlady. 
A snow shoveller. 
A butler.

Note:  The characters of Dad, Bill, Schmidt, the Landlady and the Policeman are the same in the Real and the Play-play.  The character of Jack is played by Will, and that of Belle by Peggy.

THE POT BOILER

Act I.

Scene.—­A transparent curtain of net extends across the stage from right to left, about six feet back of the foot-lights.  Throughout the text, what goes on in front of this curtain is referred to as the Real-play; what goes on behind the curtain is the Play-play.  Upon the sides of the curtain, Right and Left, is painted a representation of an attic room in a tenement house.  The curtain becomes thin, practically nothing at center, so the audience sees the main action of the Play-play clearly.  At Right in the Real-play is a window opening on a fire-escape, and in front of the window a cot where the child sleeps.  At Left in the Real-play is a window, an entrance door, a flat-topped desk and two chairs.  This setting of the Real-play remains unchanged throughout the four acts.