That Darn Plot : cleverly constructed and enjoyable play about playwriting
“Write about what you know.”
Edmonton-based playwright David Belke follows the commonly offered advice to writers and passes it on to his protagonist in his 1998 comedy That Darn Plot.
The playwright-within-the play about writing a play, Mark W. Transom, sleep deprived and half drunk, has one night to deliver a script. If he fails, he will not only betray the trust that his former girlfriend, Jo, placed in him, but will also cause her to lose her job as artistic director of the theatre waiting for the new Transom season opener.
The concept allows Belke to muse on the craft of playwriting and, through Ivy, the rule-driven stage manager, on the minutiae of Equity rules. It also offers the chance to demonstrate another commonly held belief about playwriting: that the characters sometimes take over and change the direction of the plot, periodically even introducing a new character and arguing with the writer. That Darn Plot includes all this in a cleverly constructed — although somewhat repetitive — storyline.