initial notes

An idea for a play based on some historical records of a local area - bunch of crazy characters etc...

It would be a 'Cold Comfort Farm' type of approach to the plot.

Nikos Castaneda, his wife Willow and daughter Thalia. Her husband Winston Jennings. Her friend, Mercedes. Nikos wrote a bestseller spiritual self help book called 'The Road to HarHarHar', subtitled 'A Guide to Becoming a Perfect Life Master Regardless Of Your Age', made money, abandoned wife and infant child, bought a little fishing hole in the mountains called Rainbow Springs, was never heard from in public again.

On the death of Willow, their daughter Thalia inherits (among other things) a packet of letters Nikos had sent, and a letter from a lawyer in which Nikos had left 'Rainbow Springs' to Willow and Thalia upon his death a few years earlier. Willow had always said that Nikos had left them, whereas actually he had wanted them to come with him to Rainbow Springs, but Willow had refused, effectively leaving him. Thalia is stunned by these revelations, and also by the contents of the letters, in which Nikos describes Rainbow Springs as a fancy resort in a kind of exclusive paradise populated by great artists and musicians and kept secret from the world in order to maintain its specialness.

An idea for a play based on some historical records of a local area - bunch of crazy characters etc...

It would be a 'Cold Comfort Farm' type of approach to the plot.

The woman and her husband try to check up on the place, and do find records of its existence but no phone number, no website, no detailed information, so they think it must be so exclusive that only members and special people know about it. They decide to take a road trip and find out for themselves.

Of course, when they arrive, the "resort" and "colony" are nothing like described. The fishing hole itself is just that - an abandoned concrete tub in the ground - no longer open for business (the sign reads RAIN O RINGS) - that was once stocked with fish. The colony of artists is really a dirt-road trailer-park-type place filled with eccentric people and their families.

The woman and her husband (who are yuppified city folk) are at first aghast at the locals but Thalia, at least, comes to appreciate the charm and the setting and so on, and decide to rebuild and reopen Rainbow Springs as a family/community resort-type place


couple of items here:

cellphones/phones/speaker phone
Thalia is always calling Mercedes while talking with Winston. Always puts Mercedes on speaker phone, to Winston's disgust. Mercedes is always popping up somewhere different on stage and is always somewhere inappropropriate to be talking loudly on a cellphone, which she is always doing.

M: I found directions online. It says to get in your car and drive until you want to throw up. That's how you know you're there
W: I want to throw up already
T: Really? (looking around). Are we there yet?

In Rainbow Springs there is no cell service, so Thalia has to resort to going to people's houses to try and find a phone - first stop, cat lady. second stop, etc ...

She does say to Winston, didn't we pass a town a few miles back?
W: That was no town. That was a post office, a biker bar, and a trash can.

When she brings up the idea of rebuilding and reopening Rainbow Springs as a family spot, she asks
T: Oh Winston, didn't you ever want to have children?
W: My own? Dear God, no.
T: Of course not our own. Don't be silly. Who would do a thing like that? I mean to have other people's children all running around and making those funny noises they do, and we wouldn't have to feed them or clean up after them or any of that stuff. Just make them happy. Give them a place to be have some fun.
W: (grudgingly) It wouldn't be my first choice
T: But we have to do something with all of your stockbroker money
W: I can think of other things
T: But Winston. Think of the children
W: Do I have to?

and so on

T: My cellphone isn't working
W: Mine either. There's no service here? What century is it around here? Did we suddenly drive into the Dark Ages?

On finding a land line in someone's house - an old model phone - Thalia has trouble locating the speakerphone button ...


T: The road to HarHarHar
W: HarHarHar?
T: HarHarHar
W: Very funny!


the local characters themselves - and their stories - are the meat of the story. These are drawn from actual local legends (names and so on changed to protect the innocent or not so innocent) The rest is mere plot.