Coup/Clucks Book

THE STORIES: In the first play, COUP, the leaders of local society are preparing their annual Fourth of July presentation of Gone with the Wind with the aging Miz Zifty expecting, once again, to be cast as Scarlett O'Hara, much to the disdain of her Negro maid, Beulah. The burning question, however, is who will play Rhett Butler, a problem compounded by the aspirations of a number of unsuitable candidates, including a flighty hairdresser and a gawky high-school boy. In the end the role goes (heaven forbid) to an extremely bright and personable black dentist - leading to great consternation and the last minute substitution of Beulah in the part of Scarlett! (4 men, 4 women.) In CLUCKS it is later that night and the local rednecks have gathered outside the home of Dr. Kennedy, the black dentist who had the audacity to appear as Rhett Butler. Talk of lynching and fire bombing is rife, but the good ole boys are hilariously inept and Dr. Kennedy, a Vietnam vet, is more than they bargained for - all of which leads to a very funny and most revealing standoff. (7 men, 1 woman.)First presented by the Actors Theatre of Louisville as part of the '82 Shorts Festival, the two wildly funny farces comprising this double bill poke outrageous fun at the changing status of race relations in today's South. The action centers on the annual presentation of Gone with the Wind in a small Alabama town - and the crisis that erupts when a black dentist is chosen to play Rhett Butler.