UNIT 1 - OPENING

As the curtain opens, we see three men perched motionless on top of a small black stool. The charged atmosphere and their facial expressions suggest that a fight has just ended. They hold their positions trying not to touch each other for twenty-five seconds. The Compulsive and Boor turn their heads to relate angrily to each other for an instant and quickly look away. The Compulsive and Social Martyr relate similarly and return. The Social Martyr, losing his balance, grabs the Boor; they relate angrily and return. The Compulsive angrily shrugs Boor's elbow from his back; Boor shifts his position. The Compulsive picks lint from his unit, followed by the Social Martyr holding his head and checking his pulse, followed by the Boor flexing his muscles and checking the results. Once established, these activities continue simultaneously. They try to protect their privacy and relate angrily when touched. The Boor, during an arm press, inadvertently jostles the other two; all hold and glare at each other and then return to their activities.

UNIT 2 - SHIFT

The Compulsive stretches his leg to remove a cramp reacting fearfully to the stage floor. Jealous of the more comfortable positions of the others, the Compulsive attempts to stand up. Pushed down by the Boor, the Compulsive slowly turns around on the stool and forces his way to a standing position on the stage right side of the stool. This shifts the Boor to center and Social Martyr to stage left of the stool. All grab each other to prevent falling. They glare at each other and shift to new positions to get away from each other. The Social Martyr bends over towards center, the Boor faces stage left over Social MartyrÕs back, and the Compulsive bends back to face off stage right. AU react negatively to their new positions. The Boor makes himself more comfortable by leaning on the Social MartyrÕs back. The Social Martyr attempts to stop this a few times and then straightens up forcing all to new erect positions on the stool with the Boor's arms stretched forward between the other two faces. Compulsive pushes Boor's arms way from his face and into the Social MartyrÕs face. The Social Martyr pushes them away into the Compulsive's face, etc., until the Boor is forced to take his arms out of the center and hold them up in the air, out to either side. They hold these positions for approximately ten seconds.


UNIT 3 - FRIENDS
All surreptitiously check each other out; no one reacts directly to each other, but they are obviously warming up to each other. Boor belches offending the other two, but the relating continues. Boor attempts to rest his arms on the shoulders of the others. Both reject this overture, but Boor continues until he succeeds. Compulsive gradually follows suit, and finally the Social Martyr joins them until all have their arms tentatively around each other. They finally accept this state hugging each other until a feeling of great warmth and camaraderie is shared between them.

UNIT 4 - GAME

The Boor tricks the Social Martyr by pointing to someone out front, and when he looks, the Boor taps him quickly in the face. The Boor laughs broadly at his own cleverness joined by the Compulsive. All join this game of one-upmanship mocking each other's actual appearance, e.g., hair, height, shape of nose etc. One is always slightly hurt, and the other two broadly amused. Compulsive picks lint off from the other two. The Social Martyr purses the Compulsive's lips with his hand and makes fun of their plumpness; then, he plucks at the CompulsiveÕs lower lip with his finger, laughing at the plop and the quiver. The Compulsive flicks the Social MartyrÕs nose with a finger. In response, the Social Martyr flicks the CompulsiveÕs nose and continues up inadvertently knocking the Compulsive's hat off. As it falls to the floor, all react to the seriousness of this event. The Compulsive grabs the Social Martyr's hat and holds it behind him. The Social Martyr attempts to get his own hat from the Compulsive then attempts to the Boor's hat; Boor holds his hat with both hands. Having no recourse, he kneels down to retrieve the Compulsive's hat from the floor. He returns the Compulsive's hat and gets his own in return. The Compulsive forces him to arrange the returned hat on the CompulsiveÕs head. The Compulsive completes this activity by pulling his own brim dawn whereupon the Social Martyr pulls the brim over his eyes. The Boor hits the Compulsive on the forehead, but when the Compulsive lifts his hat, the Boor points to the Social Martyr. The Compulsive hits the Social Martyr and is joined by the Boor. They hold. The Boor suggests a clockwise turn-around on the stool; the other two reluctantly comply. As they turn, all look around and at the floor as they go. This game amuses the Boor, but is not amusing to the other two. They hold again.

UNIT 5 - FIGHT

The Boor, mildly bored, begins a game of tapping the other two; they readily join in. As the tapping becomes more aggressive, their good humor changes first to irritation and then to anger. The tapping reaches a climax when the Boor is hit in the eye by the Compulsive. He reacts in pain and anger strongly pushing the Compulsive backwards so that he has to raise a leg to maintain his balance. The Compulsive responds by pushing the Boor back. Then the Boor pushes both of them. All continue pushing and shoving each other in a slow-motion battle royal wildly flailing their arms and legs to keep from falling off the stool. Finally, they all fall to the floor. They freeze horrified for an instant.

UNIT 6 - ENDING

Simultaneously, they jump back on the stool and fight to regain their positions. Gradually, they return to their isolation in slight variants of their opening positions. Furious they hold in position for five seconds. Boor looks at Compulsive, flicks him on the head, and looks away. Hold for audience reaction . . .

BLACKOUT