Collected Plays of Francis Quinlan: An Examined Life, Shadow Wars, Ferry Tales and White Gold

Francis Quinlan's characters-men and women-are literate, lively, and fully engaged in the adventures that destiny (a.k.a. the Plot) has in store for them.

Set in the year 1892, Shadow Wars, a.k.a. The House of Portraits, is the story of Percy Vance, a high-strung scholar whose mirror fetish earns him the epithet, Professor Narcissus. Percy undertakes to solve the riddle of a Confederate general's tragic defeat in the Civil War. After coming to terms with a spectral family, the Marshalls, Percy's adventure takes surprising twists and turns. He experiences dizzying heights (success) and abysmal failure. Redeemed by love, he learns that success is not the true measure of a life-even a successful one.

The issue in An Examined life is Socrates' famous dictum: "The unexamined life is not worth living." Professor Arno Fluegel's attempt to examine his life takes the form of conversations with the ghost of his youthful teacher, Max, who still dominates his psyche. His graduate student, Trudy Jones, engages him in "an enlightened conversation." Artfully guided by Trudy, even when the conversation takes dangerous turns, Arno learns the Trudy Jones maxim: "Life is to be lived and loved, not examined."

Ferry Tales is a set of four plays which take place on the Staten Island-Manhattan ferry. The plays, to be performed in a single evening, include: Take Me to Cuba, Fogbound, Ferry Evangelist and The Importance of Being George. These three character plays are varied in character types, subject matter, and story line. They are entertaining, yet the audience is ever-aware that a ferryboat sails on deep waters.

White Gold is the story of Wigschli (pron. Vig-SCHLEE), a village in the Austrian Alps. Its residents, whose forbears have for centuries lived the yodeling life, have decided to enter the modern world. Guided by a young American business consultant, who persuades them that snow can be thought of as white gold, they invest everything they have to build a ski resort. The first season is a disaster: the warmest season in the Alps in a century. No snow, no skiers. Facing bankruptcy, only a miracle can save them. ... Greed, duplicity, honesty, love won, love lost, a few eccentrics, a buffo character, an epic snowstorm-and a miracle that goes wrong.